Clash of Empires
by VexMaster
Summary: The two mighty pan-dimensional empires collide! The mighty and vast Galactic Imperium and the fanatic and strong Covenant Empire will face each other in an endless and devastating WAR!
1. Chapter 1

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Fuhrer, the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

Special thanks to Fuhrer, my co-writer, and Amann, a good friend who helped me out of a couple of writer's blocks.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

The Galactic Imperium, the greatest star empire ever to exist. Stretching over fifty galaxies over nearly thirty dimensions, this behemoth of an empire was simply massive. It commanded over two hundred fifty million planets across its vastness, and its galaxies patrolled by millions upon millions of mighty warships. It was ruled by the Great Imperial Parliament, presided over by the Council of Warmasters, who all reported to the single most powerful being in the thirty dimensions: The God Emperor of the Galactic Imperium. More than a man, more than a god, more than any being, this God Emperor had everything and controlled everything. Standing barely 3m tall, he did not look so intimidating compared to the nearly 4m tall Guardians who closely protected him. However, his relatively weak appearance had fooled many over nearly a hundred thousand years of the Imperium's history. He could crush entire solar systems into a single molecule with a single thought, yet he assumed such 'human' form.

There were few beings who could match his power, and even less who could overpower him. However, there was one being that not even the mighty God Emperor dared to cause conflict: the Void Keeper. The Void Keeper was supposedly the consciousness of a universal force that separated all of the existence from the non-existence. The one thing that the God Emperor was certain of the Void Keeper was that it was a mischievous being, which caused far more trouble than the entirety of the Q-Continuum, who the God Emperor eventually subjugated. This story is about a series of conflicts between the Galactic Imperium and another pan-dimensional empire, which collided over a seemingly empty galaxy. Many have speculated that it was the Void Keeper who sought to clash these two mighty empires.

-----

The Holy Covenant Empire, one of the largest known Empire's that spanned several galaxies and near twenty dimensions, was at its zenith. The millions of world's is controlled followed their leader with religious fanaticism, the empty space between stars and galaxies and dimensions patrolled by warships of different races brought together by God's will. It knew not defeat, it knew not heresy for those who would dare betray their sacred oath would perish and drop from the path of the Salvation and fail to ascend and begin the Great Journey. It was God's will to spread the Covenant, and those who did not accept their place died.

The Holy Covenant Empire was ruled by the Monastica Concilium (Religious Council) which oversaw the everyday activities of the Covenant and the ever expanding power of God. This most holy of councils, composed of dozens of different races, were overseen by the Council of Twelve, the military leadership of the Covenant that led the Crusades against it's enemies and safeguarded the Covenant from internal and external threats that dared attack. Yet for all their power, all the influence they had, they all reported to the single most powerful being on their plane of existence they knew, the man who had shattered the barrier between realities, brought select species into the Covenant and gave the promise of eternal salvation through his faith, the man who held power unheard of by any: The Hierarch.

More than a man, he was the Chosen Son, the Second Son of God who controlled all and saw all. He was a intimidating man, standing five meter's tall with a visage that made all beings shudder, a ripple of power and intimidation that were overshadowed by the false visage of peace and sanity he gave off. From nothing, he created the most powerful entity in dozens of dimensions, manipulated beings who had ascended centuries in the past from various realities, and wiped out entire histories. His power knew no bounds, for they grew as he continued to progress to reach the plane of existence above all, to gain the ability to become God, to rule all and do as he wish. To create realities and destroy realities, create worlds from nothing and manipulate dimensions and realities and create paradoxes. And he was close, close to achieving the level of power than only one being had, the only being that stood in his way of achieving ultimate power, a being that continued to destroy the Hierarch's physical and spiritual soul, as well as what as left of his sanity.

The Void Keeper.

Though only a myth amongst the denizens of the Covenant, the being existed and was the only being the Hierarch knew that could resist his constantly rising power. He dared not make conflict, for were he to make conflict he and his entire work, a Covenant that had stood the test of time, would vanish in the blink of an eye. And he was fearful of that, and fearful of the fact that all he had accomplished, from an orphan in one devastated Earth to a religious dictator controlling a Holy Empire, still existed. He was supposedly the consciousness of a universal force that separated all of the existence from the non-existence. Through his endless research and interrogations of ascended beings, he was certain of two things about the Void Keeper: It had caused more trouble and heresy than the entirely of the defunct Q-Continuum and extinct Ascended Ancients together, and, two, was against the way of God and in his path to reach ultimate power, and as such, was a threat, a threat he could not touch.

This story is about a series of conflicts between the Holy Covenant Empire and another pan-dimensional empire, which collided over a seemingly empty galaxy, in a war that would shatter all that billions held dear, break apart realities and cause chaos that was unheard of. Many have speculated that it was the Void Keeper who sought to clash these two mighty empires.

-----

Date: Imperial Calendar Year 6348 of 98th Millennium

Dimension: Galactic Imperium Home Dimension "StarGate Dimension"

Location: SE Quadrant, Special Sector Alpha, Zaras System, Planet Zaras - Imperial Capital World

The planet Zaras, the mighty capital of the Galactic Imperium, was a paradise. It was beauty incarnated. Rolling hills, and field of flower and thick green forests, with white marble cities dotting here and there, connected by the sea of green grass and occasional farms. There was one massive metropolis on the entire planet, and it was the Capital City, where the God Emperor resided. The planet itself had little population, barely 10 billion living in incredibly well managed underground cities which protrudes through the small cities that could be seen from outside. The people of this world were the 'Blessed', who were chosen by the God Emperor for their service to live in this paradise. This was the ultimate retirement village. Though, what retirement village was made up of billions of war heroes who have lived over thousands of years? Zaras was that planet. Its six moons, most of them artificial in nature were the real deal. They were the hub of the Imperium's governments. They themselves were nothing but a relay between the six nearby systems which are wholly devoted to providing bureaucracy for the Imperium. Also, they relayed the real-time communications from the various dimensions and the central government branches in each of the galaxies, as well as being the middle management between the Protectorates and the Imperium's central government.

The God Emperor, slowly made his way to one of the higher balconies, followed by six of his eternal Deus Guardians, who were followed by a twelve thousand Imperial Marines of the Imperator Regis Custodies. Next to the Deus Guardians were a hundred or so bureaucrats and ministers waiting for the commands of the God Emperor. On the other side of the Deus Guardians were some of the Warmasters. High Warmaster Ba'al, the Supreme System Lord, was always there, providing the God Emperor with entertainment as the God Emperor shamelessly tortured the Goa'uld. Behind Ba'al was Warmaster Vader, Governor Regent of the StarWars Dimension and the Grand Master of the Imperial Knights. Two more Warmasters followed Lord Vader, chatting among themselves. Warmaster Jean Luc Picard, the Grand Admiral of the StarFleet of the Federation, and Warmaster Adama, the Supreme Commander of the Colonial Star Fleet.

One of the bureaucrats, wearing pompous dress, bowed before even more grandly garbed officials. The official, whose job, like the five others next to him, was to filter the messages going through to the God Emperor. They were basically glorified secretaries. The bureaucrat spoke.

"Lord Scriptors, my apologies. The Explorations Office has sent this Gold Message, and Lord Grazak has sent me here."

The officials, who appeared to be haughty, blanched and quickly took the message in the bureaucrat's hands. The Gold Message was the highest priority message, though not as urgent as the Black Message. The Scriptors, whispered among themselves, and the senior Scriptor gently held the message with both hands. He was briefly stopped by the Deus Guardians but he got through and bowed before the God Emperor, who was watching the city below. The God Emperor spoke, his voice rich with power. The Scriptor felt all his worries fly away and he felt happy.

"What is it, Scriptor?"

The senior Scriptor gulped and raised the message above his head as he answered.

"My god, Lord Grazak, your First Prime, has deemed this message from the Explorations Office to be worthy of your attention."

The God Emperor simply took the message, which was written on a glass-like data pad. The God Emperor whispered to himself.

"A pocket dimension with a single galaxy that is capable as a relay to a different dimensional set? Most intriguing."

He mused over it, and then spoke.

"Tell the Explorations Office that I approve of the use of a single Blade of Truth class Scout Ship."

"Yes, my most gracious god. All shall be as you command."

-----

Date: Aprilis 12, 2790 (Inter-dimensional Calendar)  
Dimension: Pocket Dimension (Single Galaxy)  
Location: Alpha Quadrant, Sector 3/50, Archea System, Planet of Archea, Primary Colony in Pocket Galaxy

Truth and Salvation is the Holy Covenant!  
Reclaim and journey to Ascension!  
Our belief shall never waver!  
We vow our souls to God!

Through toil and faith we will abide.  
Arise ye faithful  
Your past inspires all to join in salvation!  
All Hail the Hierarch!

The Souls of the past and future faithful show the way  
Step forth; seek purity in your souls!  
Hoist your head and fists high into the clouds  
Hail the Hierarch!

Our Hierarch stands astride the worlds  
He'll purify the faithful, and vanquish heresy  
His promise of salvation rings truth and brings peace  
All hail his brilliant light!

Never will he be overthrown  
His soul and mind pure as his brother and father  
His bloodline immortal and safe  
All Hail the Hierarch!

Let the wisdom of the immortal Hierarch guide our way  
Go forth and seek salvation  
Obey the words of the Lord, ye faithful  
Hoist your head and fists high into the clouds  
Hail the Hierarch!

…

…

…

The chant ended as the millions of voices ended together in perfect harmony, ending with a rounding ripple. The chant, created during the Third Crusade against the Demonic Vampires of Hellsing and Alucard, showed the faith and loyalty that the entire Covenant felt to their immortal leader. The Hierarch raised his arms and enjoyed the roars of approval and awe coming from the large crowd before him, a crowd of seven million beings of all shapes and sizes, of many different species.

At his sides were the two councils, their heads lowered as began to speak. "Warriors and followers of the Lord, children of the Chosen Races and of God, we have accomplished much since the Covenant was born! In the span of several hundred years, our most holy Covenant has brought many races unto the path that shall lead to the Great Journey, to the key of Salvation! Our time is coming, the power and gaze of God we so desperately crave is coming! Soon, very soon I promise you all, the Time of Reckoning will come and the most faithful of us all, all of us, shall be reaped and brought into Heaven and be at peace!"

He crossed both arms above his head, and roared: "This, warriors and citizens of the Covenant, I PROMISE you!"

He swung his arms down again and his cloak, his cape as some preferred to call it (though it made no difference,) covered his body. His mask's eye holes glowed red as a shadow was cast over the crowd. His newest flagship, the Dreadnaught Archangel lowered itself into low orbit. Twice as long as his previous flagship, it was 24 kilometers in length and bristled with the most advanced technology from more than twelve different dimensions. "We crossed over into this galaxy, this galaxy hidden in a single pocket universe, a galaxy that is a dimension in itself, a galaxy with a mere thousand worlds that has developed no sentient life, that seems to have no purpose, a folly and mistake of God who, as he created the ancient Federation we defeated centuries ago, is NOT a folly or a mistake."

He paused for a dramatic effect. "Through all the dimensions we have gone through, choosing the races that God, my brother, and myself have Chosen to join us in peace and Salvation, this pocket dimension is unique. For it leads to a completely different set of dimensions, one not assessable through normal means, a set of dimensions that has not felt or heard of the path. It is our duty as the holy citizens of the Covenant, to spread the warmth of my Father's gaze."

He passed and added, "My beloved children, we shall go to the other side and meet the races on the others side, and bring them into the Covenant for that is the destiny of Chosen Races, of all races. And if they believe in false Gods, we shall show them the error of their ways, and if they resist, it is our divine duty to bring them back into the fold they strayed from!" He bowed and pated his cloak, raising his arms to the side and clasped them together before him. "My Covenant, my children of the First Colony Archea, I bid you farewell."

Activating his neural interface implants, he connected to his armor's Alteran Beaming Device, and he, the Council of Twelve, and the Monastica Concilium vanished in flash of light.

Seconds later, they re-appeared in a large hall, the most holily of all halls in the interior of the Archangel. "I trust all of you, most holy of warriors and learned beings, which you have heard of what is on the other side? " He paused and continued, "Another universe where the Federation, where the 'Star Trek' should have been, yet is not… a universe that has already been conquered before."

"God's will be done, we are his children and those who resist salvation must he killed," Alexander Anderson, a priest from the Hellsing dimension, formerly part of the Iscariot Organization, said. He grinned and he pushed his glasses up his face. "Like the vampire Alucard, those who do not believe, the demons and monsters that may exist on the others side, they must die."

"The question is though," Lelouch, Zero, said, "Is who or what conquered that other set of dimensions. From what the Knight of Zero scouted, the connection to the other universe is eternal, it cannot be shut. If we have seen it, it is possible that the other side knows about it."

"Verily, yet where are their worlds? It does not make sense," V said.

The Hierarch mused. "Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin," he said his voice deep and menacing, "send a Scout ship to the connection." The teenager saluted as his name was said and nodded at the order. "Modify it as you wish, heavily armored and with above-average weaponry. If there are threats, if they dare follow false gods such as the Imperium of Mankind," he spay the name of the old Imperium he had long ago conquered, "then I want as much information as possible."

Ender bowed. "By your wish my lord."

The Hierarch waved them away as the Council of Twelve left, parting ways with the one hundred members of Monastica Concilium. He wondered why he still needed them, and remembered that without them, he couldn't very well maintain his Covenant without the infrastructure falling apart. He closed his eyes as he walked out, and input commands to the fifty four worlds that the Covenant held in this galaxy.

The order was simple – Build Defensive structure.

-----

Within hours, a single ship departed the edge of the Star Trek Dimension and entered pocket dimension. It looked like a silver dagger without a hilt. Reaching just over 1.2km, and with the width of 200m and the height of 50m, the Blade of Truth class Scout Ship was the heaviest Scout/Exploration ship available in the Imperial Explorations Office of the Imperial StarFleet. It was controlled by an Artificial Intelligence as well as a single human-form Replicator, who was stuck in the only space available within the ship. It was armed with Mark 5 Ori/Alesian Beam Weapon, which could fire a yellow beam that has 9 times the explosive damage, 7 times the penetrative power and 5 times the firing rate of the original Ori beam weapons aboard the Ori motherships. Also, the ship carried a compliment of 40 anti-fighter turrets, 10 anti-capital ship weapons and 4 torpedo/drone launchers.

Powered by a single Mark 6 ZPM-2, which was also called the Zero Penis Module as a joke because of its 10 inch length and 5 inch circumference, the ship could fire its weapons, raise shields and enter hyperspace during cloak. Despite the size, the Mark 6 ZPM-2 produced 8 times the power of the original ZPM built by the Alterans. '-2' means that it is the second smallest of the series, with '-5' being the largest, with double the dimension of the original ZPM but producing 14 times the power. Protected by a powerful shield and cloak powered by such potent power source, the ship was small but packed a lot of punch. Also, it carried one million bug-form replicators made of a neutronium-based alloy, which carried out the ship's secondary function. While the ship's primary function was to explore, its secondary function was to prepare for military incursions.

Blade of Truth class, BT344-23-A 'Stormcrow', exited the massive cosmic portal that linked the StarTrek Dimension of the Galactic Imperium to the pocket dimension. The ship paused for a moment, as a dozen constructor ships and a small fleet of defensive ships followed it through. The fleet and the constructors would fortify the portal so that if the galaxy within the pocket dimension was viable for conquest, the rest of the Imperium's fleet could enter. As the constructors began building a stabiliser gate around the portal and frame for the six battle stations around the gate, the Stormcrow entered hyperspace and sped away. It only travelled for a few moments into the galaxy, and had only scanned a dozen or so systems when it detected a suitable planet. It exited the hyperspace and entered the planet's orbit. It scanned for the life forms on the planet but found only vegetations and non-sentient animals. The humanoid replicator initiated the protocol.

The one million bug-form replicators appeared on the surface of the planet and began to spread out according to the protocol. Then the Stormcrow activated the time dilation device to envelop the entire solar system. Within hours, the field stopped but 10 standard years had passed inside. The planet was crawling with just over 300 billion bug-form replicators. During the ten standard years, the replicators did not only increase their own numbers. They had done some work. Over two thousand buildings had been built. There were a thousand Clone Facilities, each capable of creating one hundred clones at once. Each Clone Facility was also had a barracks for 100 Clones for the first three months of their growth. The Clones would mature to the physical age of 10 within the tubes, while the memories of the template would be inserted into the brain, including the utter loyalty to the God Emperor. Then the Clones would spend next three months in the special barracks, growing into physically 20 year old Clone Troopers.

The special barracks were fitted with various technologies to boost the training and growth of the new clones. The super-nutrients fed to the clones assured the proper growth, while the Psionic Booster Beds supplemented their physical and mental training during their sleep. The controlled super gravity training and various other trainings to completely match the template memory to the body were present in the special barracks. Therefore, when the three months is over, the Clones would walk out fully trained 2m tall Clone Troopers will perfect set of mentality and body. After that is done, they would enjoy the rest of the 120 years of lifespan, unless they were killed in battle, which was more likely. After they are done training, they are housed in the normal barracks buildings, which could house up to a thousand Clones and still provide adequate resources to maintain their battle-readiness.

Apart from the Cloning facilities and barracks, other buildings were also built. Ten factories each for eight basic types of vehicles, and ten large shipyards and fifty smaller shipyards were built. Between the myriads of buildings were tall tower of defence weapons and five shield generators covering the entire compound, and a single cloak field generator that could hide the compound with ease. With the set up of a forward base done, the Stormcrow selected its course to head toward the other end of the galaxy, where another portal supposedly existed.


	2. Chapter 2

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Fuhrer, the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

**Replies to Reviews/Comments:**

**chaosknight: **Thanks for coming!

**Guardian Dimension:** Oh, just stay around...

**Kingdark:** Thank you!

**Morgomir:** We will keep up the good work... and post many more chapters in the future...

**colin:** This is a 'possible' future... Not necessarily definite... Here is Fuhrer's reply: He secretly provides Lelouch with weapons to win the Rebellion, then takes C2, has him marry Kallen, and then takes Nunally hostage and have him swear alligence to the Hierarch. Then he uses Geass (The Hierarch gets one) to force Lelouch to obey him so long as the Hierarch lives.

**tamahome8:** Yep!

**swimmerdude220:** Heh...

**VexMaster & Fuhrer:** Hey! We wrote it! No need for replying these reviews!

* * *

Special thanks to Fuhrer, my co-writer, and Amann, a good friend who helped me out of a couple of writer's blocks.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

The ship exited the strange realm of Slipstream Space as it neared the portal  
connecting the pocket dimension to other set of dimensions. The ship was of  
an old design, a crescent shape built on top of a long sword-like hull. Yet  
it had been heavily modified, and was as strong as the more modern scout  
ships. It was a small ship, only 200 meters in length and 200 meters wide, it  
had only a crew of two – one to pilot the ship and the other to study what  
they learned. Modern ships used Artificial Intelligences to control the ship,  
but the ship didn't have the proper conduits or systems installed to support  
a Artificial Intelligence. As such, the two men had to do the work of a  
highly advanced and very sentient AI themselves.

Which, considering that their minds had been modified to deal with the large  
amounts of raw data, was a fairly easy task to do.

It was heavily armed as per the order of the Hierarch, and for an old ship  
design, it was near overkill. It bore four Plasma Beam weapon batteries,  
advanced weapon designs that fired four beams simultaneously at once each,  
meaning it could fire twenty four beams itself. But those weren't the only  
weapons the ship had; it had a astonishingly large amount of Alteran  
Mini-Drones, four hundred in total, with eight drone tubes and eight old  
Railgun turrets as Anti-Strikecraft weapons.

The ship was powered by four miniaturized Zero-Point modules Mrk II. A  
Forerunner design, the ZPM-II's were three times as powerful and with the  
advanced miniaturization technology the Covenant had acquired when it launched  
a divine crusade against a dimension long ago, it only took half as much as  
it should have. The amount of power it had was enormous; it could keep its  
cloak up even whilst firing weapons and keep its shields up as well.

"Engage Sublight drives," the pilot said to no one in particular, "and  
activating cloak – May the Lord watch over us."

"And may his Sons watch over us as well," the second officer said.

The ship cruised its way through space, unaware of the danger that had  
already appeared in the pocket dimension. Suddenly the ship shook, and the  
shields fell briefly before they rose again. "What was that?" The second  
officer muttered angrily as he looked at the data before his eyes. "Jesus  
forgive me, we just entered a time dilation field! Who in blazes would use  
such blasphemous technology? I thought there wasn't any sentient life in  
this galaxy!"

"There isn't," the pilot said angrily. He paled then. "Maybe it  
from the other side, maybe they've come over here. The Council of Twelve,  
actually Ender, did warn us that they may come through as well. Should we  
proceed with First Contact Scenario, the offering of salvation?"

"It is God's will. But first, we have to find the source of this  
devilish technology – and see if we can bring the beings that use them away  
from it. To alter time is try and act as God, and that is heresy."

With surprising speed, they soon detected a planet on their long-range  
scanners and sensors…. As well as a gargantuan ship. "Hierarch save  
us," the pilot muttered in awe, "it's as large as the Lucifer was."

"By Lord's name, I'm detecting Replicators on the planet!"

"What?"

"We're being hailed!"

-----

The Stormcrow detected a ship entering the solar system and into the Time Dilation device as it shut the device down. It scanned the surroundings, and detected odd empty area in its sensor grid. It did have a shape like a space ship. Tom-043, the humanoid-replicator aboard, decided to initiate the first contact.

"This is Humanoid-Replicator Tom-043 aboard Blade of Truth class scout ship Stormcrow. You have entered the sovereign territory of the Galactic Imperium. Identify yourselves and state your intentions."

-----

Regardless of what was going on above, the planet below had already begun building an army and a fleet. Fed by the bug-form replicators mining and refining the resources, a tiny army of two and half million Clone Troopers, ten thousand light vehicles including many APCs and ten thousand heavy vehicles and artilleries, nearly three thousand air-support vehicles stood ready to be deployed. This was a standard Scout Army of the Explorations Office. Though small, and to be later become the foundation of the local garrison, this army was strong enough take on a planet. The shipyards were not lacking in their efforts either. A dozen Journeymen V-E-class light cruisers of the Imperial Starfleet, one of the lesser ships of the armada but most versatile, were finished and were being launched into space along with scores of lesser crafts such as Germaine H-A class Anti-fighter Frigate, Brown V-III class Patrol Ship and Europa H-B class Corvettes.

The Journeymen V-E class light cruisers were larger than some of the Protectorates' ships, but were small for the Imperial Starfleet. Only with 1km in its length, 120m in height and 80m in width, this ship was nimble enough to weave through enemy fleets, laying down suppressive fire. Powered by two Mark 6 ZPM-4, and three backup power cores, the ship had no cloak, since it was meant to attract incoming fire in support of bigger ships. However, it was protected by three layers of shields, each of different type, and many weapons. Its hull was protected by Penta-Layer Regenerative/Ablative Armour Mark 6, and its weapons were hidden beneath the armour plating, only coming out during a battle. It was not really made against capital ships, and therefore only carried six Mark 5 Ori/Alesian Beam Weapons, four of them forward-arc. However, the ship was also armed with eight Mark 6 Asgard Plasma Beams, now upgraded with increased multi-phasic capacity which will allow it to strike even the ships with phase shielding.

Most of the ship's armaments were anti-fighter. Only other heavy weapon than the two beam weapons were the eight torpedo/drone launchers, though their ammo never ran out as long as there was power. Apart from the three heavy weapons, rest of the ship was armed with anti-fighter weapons. Total of 100 Mk.4 Imperial Type Turbolaser turrets, 50 Mk.6 Anti-Fighter Missile Launchers and 40 Mk.4 Anti-Fighter Flak Beam turrets protected the ship from the enemy fighters. Another remarkable aspect of the ship was that it was fitted with the latest Blink Drives. Blink Drives were derived from the Jump Drives of the Colonials, but heavily modified and upgraded to be of some use. Though only capable of teleporting the ship to a distance of five million kilometres, it was a significant tactical advantage to blink between the unsuspecting enemy ships, drop some bombs and mines, then blink away. To this end, the ship was fitted with four Blink Drives, thus giving it four jumps in total.

The lesser ships were similar to the Journeymen class in their overwhelming number of weapons, superior shields and incredible power source. The Germaine H-A class Anti-fighter Frigate was tiny, with the length of mere 400m, height of 50m and width of 120m, and fitted only with anti-fighter weapons. The Brown V-III class Patrol Ship was 100m in length, 20m in width and 40m in height, and was fitted with two Mk.6 APBs and two missile launchers plus some anti-fighter weapons. The Europa H-B class Corvettes were the smallest ship in the Imperial Starfleet. With only 20m in length, 8m in width and 5m in height, this ship actually carried a lot of firepower for its size. Carrying four anti-fighter missile launchers and six Mk.5 Phased-Ion-Pulse cannons, it could shoot down almost any ship of the same class.

-----

~I repeat! This is Humanoid-Replicator Tom-043 aboard Blade of Truth class scout ship Stormcrow. You have entered the sovereign territory of the Galactic Imperium. Identify yourselves and state your intentions.~

-----

~I repeat! This is Humanoid-Replicator Tom-043 aboard Blade of Truth class scout ship Stormcrow. You have entered the sovereign territory of the Galactic Imperium. Identify yourselves and state your intentions.~

The pilot looked at his companion and frowned. "A synthetic voice, with a voice pattern similar to humanoid replicators, though it doesn't match any known voice pattern of any replicators known," he muttered.

"Should we reply?"

"Of course we should, this 'Galactic Imperium' could be yet another civilization that is willing to join the Covenant. Bless the Hierarch for choosing us to meet them on First Contact; we have the honor of meeting them! Send a message to Archea, have the Hierarch known we have made contact!"

"Yes, sir," the human replied.

But as the second officer sent the message, the pilot was concerned. This Galactic Imperium, such an arrogant name for one who was not part of the Covenant nor shared the beliefs since they obviously used heretical technology, was a unknown. And this ship, a Scout Ship, as ten times longer than his scout ship, and seemed to possess a large power source, though not as large as the ZPM Mark-II's his craft possessed, but enough to be a concern.

Suddenly an alarm blared in the 'bridge,' indicating that the time distortion field that the Time Dilation field projected had shut down. "Time has returned to normal… and the scanners are picking up additional movement on the planet."

His eyes widened in fear.

"In the name of the Father, and the Sons, and the Holy Spirit, biological signs on the planet have just appeared, but how?" He paused and read the data, "two-point-five million signals… as large as the original Sangheili Army before the Covenant had formed."

He paused and saw a look from his second officer. "I read the texts of the past," he said responding to the look.

"Hmm."

Then he blasphemed, "In the name of Satan," he cursed, ""One dozen ships, 1 kilometer in length as large as Basestar-Baseship, as well as numerous smaller types of crafts, possibly escorts and corvettes." He paled. "I'm activating cloaking system as well as ECM Field, Electric-Counter Measure System."

The ECM as an old technology, so integrated into the upgraded Scout ship that without it, the ship would not have been able to function. It had long been abandoned since more advanced technologies, given to them by the Hierarch through God (when the Lord felt they were ready to gain new technologies for their Divine Crusades,) were approved and given. It was old, but it also disrupted scanners and sensors to a extent, especially those of heretical mechanical machines. It had been put to great effect when the Crusade against the Asurans had started and ended centuries ago.

"A message…" the second officer almost jumped in religious fervor, "… straight from the Hierarch himself! He wishes to join us! Blass the Lord, we are actually going to meet the Hierarch!"

"Truly?"

"This is the message," he waved his hand over a console and the holy and illustrious voice of the immortal Hierarch rang true: "Hallowed pilots who have ventured to the set to the gateway of the other dimensional set. You have done well in making contact, with this Imperium. Respond to their hail."

Clearing his throat, the pilot hailed the 'Imperium' vessel as well as the planet, and the other ships that were rising into orbit. "Vessels of the Galactic Imperium, voyagers of the stars, hail and heed. We are the scout force of the most Holy and Illustrious brotherhood of the Covenant. Your use of heretical technology is against our ways, yet we are willing to overlook this for we are kind and peaceful. Join our Covenant, and you will be at peace when the Great Journey begins, and we start up on the path to Salvation and Ascension."

-----

Tom-043 was very amused. He was young among the humanoid replicators, as they have been serving the God Emperor for a long time. He was merely 11,446 standard years old, and during that time no race, be they some ancient and mighty god-like races or primitive beasts, they all feared the God Emperor and his Imperium, but these 'Covenant' creatures, obviously a part of 'religion-based' (disgusting!) society, wanted the Imperium to join their pitiful existence. However, there were more to be found. He calculated for a moment and decided to take the matter into his own hands. After all, why bother contacting his master when he was given the full authority? Tom-043 replied as he prepared the 'most' diplomatic way for his decided actions.

"I belong to the Galactic Imperium, which stood for over fifty thousand standard years, stretching across fifty galaxies. You think to challenge our might and our will with your pitiful existence? You are obviously primitive society still believing in some unseen deity. I assume your leader is not the deity itself but some sort of prophet? Such is the kind of foolishness bred by religion. You will submit to the might of the Imperium, now or later. Know this, the God Emperor of the Galactic Imperium, the paramount lord of all things, have declared that all that is out there is to be conquered and to be made to see the light, justice and the truth of the universe."

Tom-043, was perhaps not the best choice for this mission. He was a warrior at heart. Indeed, the God Emperor did not select anyone, but it was the decision of the Explorations Office which selected Tom-043. Perhaps Lara-022 would have been the better choice, but what was done was done. Tom-043 instantly relayed the whole interaction back to the Imperium, and proceeded to continue with the next action.

Using the considerable computer power he commanded, both as a humanoid replicator, the ship's AI and the 300 billion or so of bug-form replicators on the planet, he sent out a powerful hacking signal to the target. It was tiny ship, and despite the use of ZPM of some kind, it was too primitive to hide its true power output. Besides, they still used ECM. Who uses ECM anymore? Of course, every ship in the Imperium has been prepared for and against every known method, thereby ensuring no problem in dealing with ship protected by ECM. In any case, Tom-043 thought as he watched the target ship cloaking, the sensors aboard Imperial ships utilised six different methods, and that pathetic cloaking was good enough to fool only two of the methods.

The primary method was the obvious radar system, more evolved but still the same principle. The second method was the tracking of energy signature. The third was the detection of phase signature, and the forth being the tracking of quantum and temporal signature. The fifth method passively used was the spatial-matter location system, which calculates every matter in every unit of space within the sensor range. This required massive computer power, but the ship's sensor had enough power for that all by itself. The sixth passive sensor method was the magic. Every second, powerful detection magic pulses through the surroundings, revealing only the location of the hidden things.

As Tom-043 watched, he began to appreciate the target. For a primitive's ship, it was very well made. Tad old, but old ships could be used. It was powered by a sort of ZPM, combining the Alteran technology and the Forerunner technology. Such things were once used before the Alesians had submitted to the Imperium, and as the living remnants of the Alterans, they easily provided the flaws in that power source. While producing more power, it leaves behind a unique spatial wrinkle that takes approximately 5 seconds to be repaired. The balancing of that restorative power of the space-time-continuum was easy, but it did leave an important weakness.

A single burst of tachyon-Omega pulse, developed by the UFP-Protectorate, could temporarily shut down the power, though only for 3 seconds. Sometimes, 3 seconds could mean life and death. There could be shielding against those, but it was physically impossible to completely protect it. Some older civilian ships continued to use such ZPM, favouring the superior power generation to the commercially available Alteran ZPMs.

Tom-043 focused again as his signal touched the outer layer of the enemy's protections. Tom was once again impressed by the complexities of the protections. Had the Imperium not encountered several very advanced races of machines, these would have been impossible to crack, but it was possible.

-----

The Hierarch inspected his Horus Guards, pacing as he passed the four thousand-strong Honor Guard. It was a small force, a detachment. At full strength, it numbered to 100,000 strong not including his attendants. They were armored with finest weapons of all his warriors, advanced power armor that utilized twelve layers of energy shields and cloaks. Their armor was made out of an advanced mixture of several metals from across the Covenant, and strong enough to withstand several drones and a bolt of plasma, all at once.

And that… was without shields.

With it….with it….

Well, they were, after all, Horus Guards.

Their armor was impressive, and the helmet had built-in devices that gave it twice the range in sensors, a targeting reticule, communication ability, as well as several other functions. They were intimidating as well, but whilst they were Guards, they also needed to be elite warriors. And they were, pure Sangheili blood-line, generation after generation of select breeding and genetic modification to produce the finest warriors in the entire Covenant.

They had resilient hides, and they could lift a primitive Tank by themselves and throw it in the air. They had knowledge on all known forms of combat, they could see in the dark, and had twice the range of sight than a normal being. Their claws were capable of ripping apart a human, and with the DNA from Alexander Anderson, could regenerate limbs and regain blood. They were near undefeatable, only seven had died since the Changing of the Guards less than two thousand years ago, and they had only fallen because they had stumbled into that terrifying dimension of those vicious 'Marvel Zombies.'

He paled in remembrance.

He had managed to close the dimensional gateways between his Covenant and the various galaxies it ruled, and those he found harboring the universe-devourers. They were beings whose powers were endless, who wiped out entire civilizations in days and destroyed worlds and stars. He thanked the Lord they had not the ability to transverse dimensions at whim, which would have resulted in the very destruction of all life in all areas.

No one would have been safe. But they were still beings, and cursed by God for their crimes which only God knew of. Dimensions where they had not devoured Galactacus or the Silver Surfer (he always wiped them out first since they always dared stand against God,) he would burn their world.

In areas where they were spreading, he would use the 'Ultimate Nullifiers' he took from the Marvel Universe to strip their powers away, and then burn them under the cleansing beam of the Lord. It was the longest Crusade in the history of the Covenant, spanning several years as they searched for dimensions where the Marvel Zombies existed, and wiping them out. Such demons did not deserve to exist, and like the Vampire Alucard, would be found and destroyed, all of them.

He focused his thoughts back on his Guards, and nodded in approval. Their standard weapon as an Energy Pike, as long as the Guards themselves with two extra meters added on. It had several functions – as a mid-long range weapon, a melee weapon, as a sniping weapon, torture weapon, and ceremonial use. It was powered by a device that stole power from dozens of dimensions, giving it a limitless power source, which allowed it fire devastating shots. Each bolt of energy could blow massive holes into the ground, destroy shielded troopships, and vehicles.

Besides the staff, they had two short-range blades attached to their wrists that could sheer through four layers of advanced shielding technology. If they lost or did not use their Energy Pike's, their armour had two high-energy pulse rifles built into their shoulder plates. They were capable of firing two hundred bolts per minute, and could fire continuously for an hour before overheating, with a cool time of thirty seconds. They were very deadly.

He smiled as Warmaster Horus raised his hand in a 45 degree, his hand forming a fast as he saluted him. "Heil, Holy Hierarch!" He roared as the Horus Guards stamped their feet in unison, and raised their hands as well. "For Honor and Glory to defend the Faithful, to uphold the law of God, and serve you and your Holy Family, we are at your will to command, Holy One."

The Hierarch waved his hand and the Warmaster lowered his hand as did his group, the Hierarch's Honor Guards. How appropriate. He still didn't trust the Warmaster, but he could sense no thoughts of betrayal in his head. "Warriors of Horus, my Horus Guards and my Honor Guards, a new entity has appeared near the strange entrance to the other dimensions, untouched by the love of and caring of the Covenant. As children of God, it is our duty to bring them, and if they refuse, like our past Crusades, they must be wiped out."

He paused and went on. "They appear to stray of the Path of Salvation, through their use of Replicators, yet we can bring them on the path. This new civilization we had found appears to be near equal to us, and though we can be aggressive and destructive if the Lord wishes it, we can be peaceful as well. If they do not wish to join us, but are unwilling to fight as well, we may exist as brothers, and through time, they will come to us and enter Salvation!"

"Salvation through faith!" The Sangheili the Warmaster said in unison.

He waved his hand, and with the powers he possessed being so close to achieving his goal of ascension through the highest plane of existence, the guard became ball of light and instantly vanished, transported to the immense hanger bay of the Archangel as they waited for further orders.

The Hierarch took his seat in his Gravity Throne, and smiled as he felt the Slipstream Drives disengage, and raised the multi-layered energy shields, and armed the vast arsenal of Drones, Plasma Pulse batteries, Particle Beams, and Phase Missiles. The Archangel possessed a large arsenal of weapons, two million mini-Drones as well as four hundred standard sized drones that were, in reality, thirty drones stuck together to cause massive amounts of damage.

The Archangel had two hundred plasma batteries around its hull, as well as several Particle Beams that fired at the speed of light at its prow. The Phase Missiles were an old technology, but were extremely unique. They weren't particularly strong, but when fired, they travelled through Slipstream space and, unless their opponent could disrupt Slipstream travel. But it took fifty Phase Missiles to equal just half the strength of a Drone weapon….

Still, they could fire through Slipstream Space.

Normally he didn't raise the defences and weapons of the Archangel; in fact this was the maiden voyage of his new flagship. He also, normally, relegated control of his vessel to the twelve sentient, yet completely loyal Artificial Intelligence Cores. Yet, because they were so advanced, they often became bored. He didn't care though, they were machines and machines were good only to serve. He didn't know why he was taking personal control of his vessel, but felt he had to.

The Archangel dropped out of Slipstream Space just at the star system's 'edge,' the very limit of how far the star's gravity well was. He powered up the incredibly small, but very powerful, Sublight drives that propelled the 24 kilometer-long flagship towards the world with the largest biological signature, as well as the world where his scout ship had arrived to.

He smirked.

He had made yet another break though in Slipstream technology- combining the FTL Drives of Cylon Basestars with Slipstream Drives, allowed for four-times the increase of speed and half the time in energy build to power the drives. But the reason he arrived so quickly was because he was already nearby, inspecting his farthest outpost.

Then he frowned. "So many alien vessels, they seem fairly powerful. " He was far off from any known scanners; the advanced scanners he possessed were capable of reaching an entire light-year. Past that, the scanners were subject to 'ghosts.' "

He frowned even further as his primitive scout ship went dark, and the alien ship that neared it seems to bristle with a power source that rivalled his own. The AI's went to work, using the various systems onboard the Archangel to break through the sophisticated and complex defences of the vessel. He nearly groaned as the AI's went for the worst way to hack into an opposing vessel's systems – through brute force. He would have to purge them.

No matter though, it would alert the alien vessel, but the way his AI's went avoiding the extreme defences – no, one AI went down, - in just a few minutes, he would be able to glean the tip of their technology and knowledge.

It was the Covenant's fate to bring all into salvation.


	3. Chapter 3

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Fuhrer, the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

**Replies to Reviews/Comments:**

**TitanX7:** Thank you! Just keep reading!

**Morgomir:** Thanks! Heheh... Yep, Replicators are good, but we will see...

**tamahome8:** This is a relay story, so it may not work out as I wish it...

**swimmerdude220:** NIce specs, huh... Keep reading!

**Fuhrer:** Seriously? But fun reviewing your own story, heh!

* * *

Special thanks to Fuhrer, my co-writer, and Amann, a good friend who helped me out of a couple of writer's blocks.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

The construction of the defences around the portal was ready. The liberal use of Time Dilation technology and the AI controlled construction ships had already finished the construction of the basic defences. Four large sections of a ring were built around the portal, harnessing it and feeding correct energy variant to maintain its integrity and minimise the regular contraction that could potentially cripple large ships coming through. Each the 'gate' section was powered by three Mark 6 ZPM-5s, and was capable to generation very powerful shield to protect itself.

However, the idea of defence was far grander in the Imperium. Four battle stations were constructed around the portal, pointed at 45 degree angle forward. These stations were capable of firing their many weapons in almost all arcs and they had a lot of weapons aboard. The stations themselves were not that large. Slightly spherical, the station's radius was only 5km, and managed mostly by AI, though there were approximately 500 crew and 2500 Clone Soldiers, and with the backup defence force of approximately 10000 droids. Powered by six Mark 6 ZPM-5s, with two back up ZPMs, the station was protected by quad-layer shielding and thick armour plating. However, it was never meant to take on any serious firepower. It was meant to destroy the enemy ship before it got close.

The spherical station's weapons were divided into six sections, each tied to the power source of that section. Each section harboured 15 Ori/Alesian beam weapons divided into five groups of threes, 25 Asgard Plasma Beam weapon ports, 25 Phased Ion Cannons, 125 long-range plasma disruptor cannons. 125 anti-fighter weapons, 50 drone/torpedo launchers. Also, the station had five hangers, each hanger containing 20 squadrons of fighters and 10 squadrons of bombers, with 5 vessels per squadron. These stations were the foundation of this portal's defence, but not the heart.

The heart of its defence was the starbase built five hundred thousand km in front of the portal. 500k km was not really far in terms of space battles, since any ship that Imperium uses could easily cover 500k km in seconds. However, it was the size and power of this station that made it remarkable, though the station's designs were quite often used in other areas of the Imperium. The station was octahedron in shape with four 'Klingon battle stations' sticking out from pointy ends. The look was purely the design, but it was the content that really made the impression. Reaching 30km in length, the station was capable of docking even the medium ships of the Imperial Navy.

For its size, the station actually had far more power than the size required, mostly due to the weapons and shield requirements. Twelve Mark 6 ZPM-5s powered it, with six back up ZPMs in place. Its penta-layer shielding system is maintained by seven separately maintained systems plus a back up that covered the entire station. This design was efficient in defending the station, and allowed triage in case a section of the station was compromised, without needing to shut down the whole shield.

The weapons of the station were far more numerous than the battle stations. Each of the six protruding 'wing' sections were armed with 25 Ori/Alesian beam weapons, 50 Asgard Plasma Beam weapon ports, 50 Phased Ion Cannons and 150 long-range plasma disruptor cannons. 250 anti-fighter weapons, 75 drone/torpedo launchers plus 50 or so non-standard weapons were also present, though they dotted the entire wing sections. The fighter compliment did not reside in the wing sections but at the heart of the station. Twelve hangers with 50 fighter squadrons and 20 bomber squadrons were always ready to unleash the swarm. Requiring just over 2500 crew, 10000 Clone soldiers and equipped with 35000 droids, the starbase was very capable.

The one aspect of the starbase that was also quite remarkable was the liberal uses of bug-form replicator. Usually spread across the station's more vulnerable spots looking like hull plating, the twenty million replicators worked as repairer as well as doing various other functions to supplement the works of 3500 astromechs.

-----

The Hierarch was impressed by the complex system of defences the rather large ship had, enough to hamper his efforts in breaking into the networked vessel. But he was the Second Son of God, and what he wanted, he would get, for all bowed to him, and all revered him and his Father. He smirked as his AI's finally spliced and ripped apart the final defence, and he immersed himself in the data.

He learned many things about this new opponent… many things in the short period he knew he had before this ship's defences rose back up. Brutal hacking was a crude and very obsolete way, but these AI's preferred it as it had been a Sangheili who had designed them, and Sangheili were not one to sneak in the shadows. No, that was for his spies and assassins.

He paused and learned….

Galactic Imperium… a dimensional-spanning Empire similar to his Covenant… but much older… and spanning twice as many galaxies….

He frowned.

That could be an issue.

Advanced technology… from dozens of dimensions, many of which he had visited as well… including accursed Replicators… heretical technology that they seemed to use regularly…. And seemed to be based on the Imperium of Man…. A civilization that had (fairly) recently fallen to God's most esteemed child, himself, and his Holy organization, the Covenant Empire.

A Large Military Force…. that would pose a great issue. Whilst the Covenant could rally more than a billion soldier's to combat, not including the Knightmare Frames, Aerocraft and more, these beings used…

"In the name of heresy," he said, hissing in anger. "These beings would use the inhuman technology of Cloning?"

He was horrified.

He closed off his connection, having learned more than enough, more than he desired to know… Cloning! What sort of beings was ruling this Galactic Imperium? Did they have no Code of Ethics, no honour, no humanity in them? What sort of ruler would allow Cloning technology to be used? To mass produce beings and use was nothing more than slavery, and slavery was not accepted in the Covenant. Worse than that was using them to fight wars, and when the Covenant had gone in a Crusade during the mid-Clone Wars, they had done so with relish.

Because of it, even after so long, that 'galaxy far, far, far, away' was still recovering from the after-effects of the Crusade. The Galaxy's population was extremely low, a average world had 8 billion sentient beings compared to the 19 billion beings that inhabitant most worlds.

He sneered.

He would have to show them the way of the path, first through conversion that he had a feeling, with the way they abused heretical technology, they would not listen to Priors at all. But it was tradition, and he had two hundred Priors onboard his flagship, waiting to be called upon.

"Disable their vessel," he ordered to the AI's, "power down their engines, see if you can steal what worthwhile technology they have, and see if it's crew is willing to join us – it not, kill the crew and bring the ship to me. It shall the first vessel from this 'Galactic Imperium' to join the Covenant."

Then he closed his eyes and raised his hands: "Priors of the Covenant," he uttered, his voice barely above a whisper, "Rally to your Conversion Ships, travel through their side and begin to convert:

"They shall join the Covenant, or be the start of a new Crusade."

-----

Tom-043 had not been so surprised in several thousand years. This primitive enemy had not only detected his hacking but attempted a counter-hack, with some degree of success. The enemy had somehow managed to get past the first 15 basic firewalls that protected the Level 5 Database, and Tom-043 managed to activate the Active Firewall for the Level 4 Database onward. The hacking of his origin was rather successful, though the compartmentalisation of enemy's database stopped Tom from taking any serious information. What he did get was enough. The number of dimensions, galaxies, the general outline of the dimensions that belonged to this pitiful empire, were all copied down. Tom also took some of the references on their basic military and civilian structures of their empire as well as the designations of several of their ships and ground force units. Instantly transmitting it to the starbase and relayed to the Imperium, Tom was surprised when he detected a large fleet heading toward him and his new military installation. Deciding that the Stormcrow and the new ships cannot withstand what was obviously a large fleet, he called for immediate reinforcements.

-----

Commodore Halon XI aboard _Righteous Wrath XXXIV_ mused as his ship exited the portal, followed by the rest of his Vanguard Fleet. It was an honour to be selected for such mission and he longed for the glory of his ancestors. His fleet, the Vanguard of the Imperial Grand Fleet 43-095, originally being dispatched to the naval base in the galaxy 43, its name remembered only by the record keepers and the residents, was a small but powerful fleet of 1157 very capable ships. Led by a single battleship, the Crusading Angel class battleship _Righteous Wrath XXXIV_, this small fleet was like any other Vanguard fleet, crushing the enemy's will to fight. Of course, some enemies were stupid enough to pick fights with a Vanguard fleet. At the command of the Fleet Command HQ, the Commodore was sent to secure the first stronghold built by the scout ship, who should have moved out to build more, but was stalled by meeting the aliens from the other side.

When the sudden distress call alerted him, he growled. He was informed that a humanoid replicator had made first contact. That was considered a bad move. The result was often catastrophic… for the other side. Sighing, the commodore gave the command for his fleet to move out, much earlier that he had expected. This head meant that the second and third groups of troopships and colony ships had to be guarded by lesser ships belonging to the main fleet.

"This is Commodore Halon to all ships in the fleet. Prepare to move out on my command. Recheck the destination coordinates."

~Understood, Commodore. The fleet is ready to depart. All ships have confirmed new coordinates.~

"Maximum speed."

~Yes, sir!~

-----

As the standoff began, the new ships constructed positioned themselves around Stormcrow. Manned by the Clones, these ships were created for war, and its crew born for war. The one thing that remained between an actual war and a stalemate was some sort of response from the God Emperor.

-----

The God Emperor was in a good mood as he entered his daily training ground. As a God Emperor of an incredibly large empire where millions of powerful beings were subservient only because of his power, the God Emperor enjoyed seeing his power grow, and what better way to see it than train with the few of the strongest beings in the Imperium. The training ground was massive. With a radius of just over 50km, this dome was built with many advanced technologies to challenge the God Emperor. This had meant that the God Emperor was most vulnerable here, but that really didn't mean much when he has to increase the challenges everyday to catch up with his growing powers. As he put away his armour and put on a nice training suit, he saw four beings about ten kilometres from the entrance of the dome.

Son Goku, Vegeta, Son Goten and Trunks were waiting for him, stretching their bodies. God Emperor waved to them as he ran at an incredible speed and arrived before them. They all nodded to each other. Vegeta seemed excited.

"So we are finally breaking 1000G line." He spoke with grim voice, but his excitement showed.

The God Emperor chuckled.

"Yes, we are about to break 1000G line. However, we will be skipping almost 10Gs this time. Far more jump than we are used to."

Goku was very excited too.

"I can't wait!"

"Be quiet Kakarrot, you are making a fool of yourself." Rebuked Vegeta as he stretched his neck.

Smiling, the God Emperor stretched also.

"Shall we begin with some warm-ups? By the way, where is Gohan?" Asked the sovereign of the Galactic Imperium.

"He is out on one of his lectures."

"Damn shame he is missing out on this important day."

"Yeah!"

Others nodded and began to gather their powers. In anime, this lasted for entire episodes, but in reality, it was very brief. All the Saiyans powered up into Super Saiyan 3, with long flowing golden glowing hair. The God Emperor breathed in a bit and powered up as well. His hair colour did not change but his hair stood up like the Saiyans' did. Then suddenly, the Saiyans attacked. They moved so fast that normal humans would never have caught them at all. More surprisingly, the God Emperor blocked the attacks with ease and sent several counterattacks during the exchange of fists and kicks. As they fought, the ferocity of the fight forced their bodies upward into the air. With a boom, the Saiyans were thrown away. The Saiyans wiped bits of blood from their mouths and panted a bit. Each of them took out a Senzu bean from their pouch and swallowed it.

Seeing them recover, the God Emperor spoke.

"Enough warm up, let's try this."

Suddenly, the power of 1000G gravity pressed down on them all. However, it barely seemed to affect them. Smiling, Goku and Vegeta powered up more and turned into Super Saiyan 4.

"We won't be beaten so easily this time, God Emperor." Said Vegeta with a smile.

"We will see." Answered the God Emperor.

Just as they prepared to fight, the door opened, and two people entered the dome. The dome entrance was protected from the extra gravity, and four Guardians were guarding the door from outside, and four from inside. One of the Guardians outside brought a messenger in. The Guardian spoke.

"My god, there is an urgent message from the Imperial Fleet Command. They humbly as that you attend to this immediately."

The God Emperor frowned lightly.

"Do they know that I am in a training session?"

"Yes, my lord, but Lord Grazak as authorised this intrusion."

The God Emperor nodded and came down, reducing the gravity. Vegeta seemed rather pissed but Goku was consoling him with a promise of a duel. The God Emperor went to his closet and put his armour back on. As he put the armour on, he asked the messenger.

"What was the message that my First Prime Grazak has authorised to disturb me?"

The messenger silently gave him a small datepad. The God Emperor read over it and nodded. He turned to his Guardians.

"Prepare my ship, we have places to visit and people to deal with."

"Yes, O' my God."

-----

The Hierarch was shocked, but too shocked, when the Scout Ship of the Galactic Imperium broke through his defensive network system, and managed to steal a small number of data on his Covenant. Due to the compartmentalization of his databases, the information the pilot of the opposing Scout Ship was minimal.

However, though…

It was an insult he could not tolerate.

Closing his eyes, he relayed orders to his small escort fleet that was hiding within the Hanger Bay of his flagship. ~~Honorable warriors of the Covenant, release the clamps that hold you within, and show these beings who dare try to insult God, my Father and the One above all, the fury of the Covenant. Those who fail to walk the path must be punished. ~~

The Ship Master's obeyed as they powered the powerful engines, shields, weaponry and network defences of their warships. He stood up from his Gravity Throne and raised his arms to his side as he broadcasted on all known frequencies, from the many galaxies he ruled, "Beings of the Galactic Imperium, know the might of the Covenant! You would dare steal information rightfully belonging solely to the Covenant Empire, the holist of all dominions? Fear our might, for your heresy and blasphemy shall be corrected and the evil cleansed."

He closed of the broadcast and smiled behind his mask. Two Assault Carriers, the most advanced ships of all of his escorts (as he deserved only the finest protection that the Son of God demanded,) lead the charge, floating downward from the massive hanger bay. The two 6,000 meter-long warships took positions at his flanks.

Alongside the Carriers, four squadrons of Seraph-Fighters, Cylon Raiders, as well as Goa'uld Death Gliders raced out. Each squadron held twelve Strikecraft, meaning 144 Strikecraft raced out. They were heavily armed, several plasma pulse batteries underneath their curved wings, two shields generators that provided overlapping defence, miniature Cylon-Lantean 'Wormhole' Drive (a technology that was still considered to be unstable, but Strikecraft were expendable…)

Beside that, their armour was a mixture of all known metals in the Covenant, and the pilots, or AI's, were extremely well trained. They had been genetically enhanced to the point that they could react in less than split-second; they could see three times the distant of a normal man.

They were, in essence, the perfect pilots, the perfect killers.

The Hierarch grinned.

"Release your hold!" He ordered to his escorts. "Show the might of your Holy Covenant and the Empire!"

His Ship Master's did so, and two old-fashioned Sovereign-class Starships shot out from each of the hanger bay's of the Carriers, as did three squadrons of Seraph Fighters. The old Federation starships had been heavily modified to make them far more lethal than they had been when the United Federation of Planets had surrendered to the Covenant less than a month after the Crusade.

Their shielding had been upgraded, their 'Phasers' and Quantum Torpedoes had been replaced by advanced Plasma-based technology, enhanced drone launchers, and one Particle Beam. They were a force to be reckoned with, do not as strong as his flagship or REAL Covenant warships.

He smiled coldly as he sent a message to his nearby outpost only 40 light-years from this system. The outpost was new, only 400 beings operating the most basic of equipment, Long Range Sensors and two dozen orbital plasma battery turrets, and a planetary defence shield. Orbiting the world was twenty two Assault Carriers and seventeen Cylon Basestars.

The message was simple: ~~Come. ~~

As they rapidly approached the Stormcrow, he ordered his Assault Carriers to pick their targets and await further instructions. Whilst these beings were far from being readily accepted into the Covenant, he still believed he could save them.

He smiled.

He hoped this would not turn into another Crusade like that last one… so many Priors and warriors and ships had fallen in an attempt to bring the Imperium of Man into the Covenant. They had succeeded, but the losses had been incredible, a entire Crusade Fleet lost and another half depleted, with billions of soldiers defeated, and most of his Prior's turned and demonized.

But they had won, and the Imperium was on its way, quickly, to embracing Salvation through its fanatical belief in the Covenant. He was confident, no matter how deadly the cost, this Galactic Imperium would be the same.

~~Holy One, ~~ a transmission came, ~~we of the Prior's are preparing to journey through Slipstream Space for the other dimensional set where this Imperium resides. We shall not fail, we are strong in our beliefs, our will is iron. When we arrive at the other side, we shall begin to convert and bring salvation and good to them. ~~

The Hierarch waved his hand and sent them pleasure and peace of mind to them by their Neural Implants.

-----

Tom-043 smiled. His artificial 'soul' was that of a warrior. He relished the chance to fight in a battle once more. At his command, the Stormcrow and the new ships surrounding the Stormcrow powered up their weapons and raised shields to maximum. A drop of a single pin would immediately set these two fleets upon each other.


	4. Chapter 4

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Fuhrer, the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

**Replies to Reviews/Comments:**

**Halikaon085:** Thanks! And maybe you can vote for who wins! Fuhrer got a poll going, and I think I do too, but I cannot be certain... lol...

**Morgomir:** Thanks!!!

**tamahome8:** NICE! Just keep reading and it will be fun!...

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Special thanks to Fuhrer, my co-writer, who has began a poll on who wins this epic story...

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**Chapter 4**

With the rest of the Vanguard Fleet still escorting the various Colonization fleets, military and civilian convoys, only the Vanguard Heart, the core of the Vanguard Fleet, could speed its way directly to assist Stormcrow, with the rest of the fleet requiring some time to reroute their headings. However, the Vanguard Heart Fleet, led by the Commodore himself, had immediately headed to reinforce the Stormcrow. Crusading Angel class battleship _Righteous Wrath XXXIV_, which was the flagship of the Vanguard Fleet of the Imperial Grand Fleet 43-095, was classified as a battleship, which begins from Light Heavy Ship. In fact, it was one of the smallest among its size-classification. Mere 12km in length, 4km in width and 2km in height, the Crusading Angel H-A4 class battleship was one of the newer models on the line, built no more than twenty years before. It was a lighter battleship built to inflict many lighter damages over a relatively long period of time using its superior manoeuvrability.

Powered by five Mark 6 ZPM-5s with backup of three Mark 6 ZPM-4s, the ship featured 5 layers of shielding, and an array of powerful propulsion engines. Like the rest of the Imperium's warships, this battleship had a lot of weapons, far more than even the ships of Imperium of Man, whose ships were infamous for their overwhelmingly numerous weapons. Unlike the light class ships or the medium class ships, the Ori/Alesian beam weapons and Asgard Plasma Beams were not used as the heavy weapons aboard the heavier class ships. In fact, the two weapons were considered light weapons aboard these bigger ships. Of the three main weapons aboard the Crusading Angel class battleship, the primary weapon was the five turrets of three-barrel Trans-phasic Singularity Pulse cannons. Capable of forward arc with margin of 45 degrees to each side of the ship, these turrets fired bolts of energy-field contained miniature singularity with trans-phasic variance that can move past frequency based energy shields including multi-phasic or AT-fields. Shields with randomised trans-phasic properties or absolute quantum value, such as the Alteran or Ori based shields, or some of the more powerful magical shields could block the attack.

The problem with the TSP Cannons was in its relatively slow firing rate. With each barrel capable of firing one round per minute, each turret was able to fire three shots every minute, or one shot every 20 seconds. To compensate for this weakness in the primary heavy weapon, the second weapon was a beam weapon. The Disharmonising Plasma Disruptor Beam was a relatively new weapon invented during the middle of the 5th War of Imperiums, to be used against Alesians and their Alteran based shields. It has been updated and upgraded three times during the last two thousand years, and it has become a formidable weapon of great power. Based on reverse harmonics resonance inherent to most energy based shields, the beam fires a disruption wave that disperses most energy shields, and even the physical objects. The damage or the penetration increases upon the duration of the beam and the density of the object or the energy field. This deadly beam in interestingly more powerful against stronger shields rather than weak ones, and stronger against power and strong armours than softer materials. Aboard Crusading Angel class ships, twelve ports of this weapon, with four at the rear arc.

The third heavy weapon was the Hellfire Warhead on torpedoes, missiles or Drones. This was a magical weapon devised shortly before the 1st War of Imperiums by the concerted efforts of the Warlocks of the Burning Legion, Mage Tower of the Alliance and several other dimensions with 'magic'. Developed in preparation against the Chaos Gods of the Warhammer Dimension, the warhead, upon impact, explodes into a cloud of fire that burns even in the vacuum of space. The size of the damage depends on the amount of energy within the ZPM-battery that feeds the magic core with the power. The minimum warhead explodes in a spherical area with a radius of 5km, where the area within the sphere burns in dark purple fire that reaches the temperature of 32,000 degrees Kelvin, which is only 2,000 degrees less than the surface temperature of the hottest stars. Though the fire only burns for an average of three seconds, the damage caused by the heat, magic, pressure, various energy pulses and radiation is enough to wipe out a planet with ease, and even the most powerful of the ships and their shields can suffer grave damages. However, the inefficiency of delivery methods, the nature of magic core being delicate therefore cannot be 'beamed' in, has limited the use of these powerful warheads. Only few are stocked aboard each heavy sized ships, and used as last method, and a single large warhead is installed along with anti-matter Annihilator Bomb as the self-destruct device.

Armed with such weapons, as well as array of nearly 80 Ori beams, 160 APBs, 480 anti-fighter weapons and 40 Helix Penetrator Cannons, 60 Quantum Anti-Matter cluster bombs ports, 120 torpedo/drone launchers and 20 HyperGravity Tractor Beam ports, the Crusading Angel class ship was a formidable ship. Surrounded by ships armed with similar weaponry, the flagship made the Vanguard Fleet extremely potent. Of course, the Vanguard Fleets, while regarded with some respect, was also considered as a light assault fleet, unable to fight off more potent enemies. Indeed, with most of the Imperial fleets, especially when the Main Fleet component fleets like the Core Fleets and Assault Fleets contain dozens of ships of even larger sizes. For example, the Core Fleet of the Main Fleet element of the Imperial Grand Fleet 43-095, is lead by a Heavy Heavy category Honourable Devastator V-A class dreadnought _Bane of Foes XXIX_, which has the length of 75km, with its escort being the two Medium Heavy category Black Shark H-C class battlecruisers, which has the lengths of 42km.

-----

As the tension began to rise, the planet below prepared to fight as well. Planetary shields powered up and secondary shields covered each building. The Clones took to their designated shelters and manned the anti-orbit weapons placed all around the compounds. Various towers were manned and the buildings became half submerged into the ground like Tokyo-3 of Evangelion dimension. Giant dual-barrel positron cannons popped up around the compounds, readying to fire their deadly weapons into the sky.

-----

The five Covenant warships accelerated, and their batteries and drone  
launchers warmed as the Archangel began the process of power its two Particle  
Weapons. The fighters formed a wall in front of the Fleet, and pushed their  
engines to the limit as they strived to match the powerful engines of the  
Capital Ships.

Small ships, triangular in shape with two fins sticking out of its sides,  
shot out from the large hanger bays of the Archangel and entered Slipstream  
space. The Priors within those small ships, each no bigger than 100 meters in  
length and half that size in width, the missionary vessels to the other  
Dimensional Set.

"Hail vessels of the Galactic Imperium" the Hierarch declared as his  
reinforcements neared closer and closer, "The Covenant is kind thought we  
can be deadly. Embrace the Covenant and the Final Revelation of the Bible,  
embrace God and Lord, and you shall join us in Salvation!"

He paused for dramatic effect: "What say-"

His eyes widened in alarm as one of his Sovereign-class Starships fired a  
swarm of Drones at the Imperium Scout Ship. "Ship Master Anthony Perez,"  
he roared angrily, tapping into the Federation-Earth's Neural Interface  
Implants, "I gave no such order nor did I desire for you to fire!"

~~Holy One! ~~ The Ship Master said, ~~clearly they refuse to embrace  
Salvation – they must be punished! I only do what is necessary, holy one, I  
believed it was what the Lord desired! ~~

The Hierarch growled.

This…. This was….

He sighed as his reinforcements arrived.

-----

The ship shook as the drones from a Sovereign class ship collided against the powerful shields of Stormcrow. Tom-043 saw through the external 'cameras' of the attack, but was not overly concerned. The immediate transmission from the lead ship to the attacking ship had suggested some sort of miscommunication or disagreement with the command. He was certain that this was attack was the first but not intentional. However, he could not really let it go. He powered up the Ori/Alesian beam weapons and aimed at the Sovereign class ship when a transmission came through from the lead ship.

-----

~~Heed this Hail, Tom-043 of the Galactic Imperium Scout Ship Stormcrow. This is not aggression. Do not take it as such. What occurred was not on purpose, but mistake as well as failure to obey the words and orders I had given. Do not retaliate, I wish only to speak and bring you upon the path to eternal Salvation, despite your origin as Replicator Humanoid. ~~

Tom sneered as he replied.

~What leader can promise such salvation when disorder within his own ranks is too obvious?~

~~He followed only the Sacred Laws, and he interpreted incorrectly. It is not within his fault, and whilst it is honorable that he obeys the Sacred Laws, it is not honorable that the Ship Master did so crudely. By the Power of God, of my Brother Jesus, he shall be punished, make no mistake. The Covenant does not tolerate disorder, does not allow betrayal of any sort.~~

~Interesting... Your brother is Jesus of Nazareth? Then your 'God' must be Yahweh. My God had captured and destroyed several versions of Yahweh across the dimensions, including some genuine gods. They all fell before my master.~

~~Impudent Replicator! The Lord, my Father, the God of all realms, has no name, he does not have any other but himself! He is the sole God, immortal! To state your... God... your heretical being is... your blasphemy is a curse! Choose your worlds carefully - I have seen the War of the Imperiums, read the records, and my Divine Crusade against the Imperium of Man was simple and easily accomplished compared to your crude invasion. ~~

~Well, I have read your records too, and your Warhammer Dimension didn't have the Alesians. They made all the difference in those wars. Besides, the lengths of the wars were deliberate. As will this war. Your empire shall suffer this war for a ten thousand years before my master is done with you!~

~~Arrogance! These Alesians would not have made a difference! The Covenant is undefeatable, we purged the Saiyans, our Crusade against the Undead of the Marvel Beings is ending, your Galactic Imperium will wither away, and no matter how long it takes! I am the Hierarch, the Prophet of the Lord, even as we speak, my Divine Missionaries go to your set to bring the brainwashed beings that your so called 'God' rules, and when they are finished, when the Imperium shatters when we arrive, and your people join us, it will you who perishes in the torture of infinite years.~~

~Your arrogance blinds your, Hierarch of Covenant. The Imperium is eternal! We have been around far longer than you can imagine, and we have fought, and continue to fight wars beyond your imaginations. Take heed, Hierarch, the God Emperor of the Galactic Imperium is merciful and your people shall eventually serve the Imperium, while you shall be mercifully... be made a Warmaster.~

~~The Son of God serves none!~~

At this point all of their weapons charged up and targeted the Stormcrow.

~~You seem to speak, but you nothing more than a servant. You shall perish in the fires of hell, but I wish to meet your so-called God-Emperor. Perhaps, in time, we can rule our Empires togeather, and end the threat that the Great Enemy, the Keeper of the Void, presents, if he is wise.~~

Tom raised an eyebrow.

~You know of the Void Keeper also? The God Emperor also demands the destruction or the capture of the being. However, it is my master who will ultimately decide your fate.~

~~I am the SECOND SON OF GOD! My power is unlimited. I can manipulate your atoms, travel through dimensions at whim. I accomplished in less than a fraction of the time what took your God-Emperor to do.~~

Tom-043 chuckled.

~Your boasting merely amuses me, Hierarch. You know from what you have gleaned, that you cannot possibly hope to take on the Imperium. However, we 'want' this war, Hierarch. We want perpetual WAR! As it has been for the fifty thousand years, your empire will continue to serve the Imperium long before you are conquered. You have the advantage now, so strike! I wait for it! When you have destroyed my ship and my fleet, then the God Emperor shall bring the war. I tell you, Hierarch, that a Vanguard Heart is coming. You know what that is, since you have gleaned into the basic structure of our fleets. Fight or flee, I care not!~

-----

~I tell you, Hierarch, that a Vanguard Heart is coming. You know what that is, since you have gleaned into the basic structure of our fleets. Fight or flee, I care not! ~

The Hierarch was shocked – this society grew more barbaric by the moment. What society desired war? The Galactic Imperium was more and more similar to the Imperium of Man, savage and cruel. They strayed from Holy Path, and as such, they were devils and inhuman.

He growled.

He waved his hand and stood up, connecting to the implants of his Ship Masters as they warmed their Plasma Batteries and discharged their weapons. Concentrated beams of high-intensity plasma, four beams per battery, collided with a Journeyman V-E-class Light Cruiser, breaking through its three shield's with ease, boiling and ripping apart its ablative armour, and destroying the one ship. The remaining drones circled the erupting ship and smashed into the next Light Cruiser.

-----

The new ships returned fire the moment as Tom instantly took command and ordered all ships to fire. Loss of a Journeyman was rather significant as it had already taken down many enemy fighters and would have continued to do so. In response to the enemy's attack, the small fleet fired their Ori beams and Asgard Plasma Beams. The powerful shields blocked the attacks but the immensity of the firepower, which was the style of the Imperium to have over-the-top firepower. The Stormcrow shuddered as the Drones and beams struck the shield, first layer hold back the attack with 90% depletion. Rerouting power to the shields and weapons, Tom narrowed his eyes. He knew that his fleet and his ship was not going to last too long. He had to move fast.

-----

"Their shields are strong," he muttered, "as strong as my divine shields. But our faith is strong, we will survive."

He grinned insanely behind his mask as he charged the two Particle Beams at the sides of his ship, and targeted the planet. The Particle Beams were deadly weapons, firing at Light Speed, and able to burn away a world's surface. But even with the power source his flagship possessed, it took a day for it to recharge to full power, and for an enemy and heretical force such as this – he knew he needed to improve his weaponry technology… as well as the defence force in this Pocket Dimension.

He watched as hundreds of thousands of drones swarmed over the Imperium ships, and Plasma crisscrossed the sky. A Sovereign smashed into a Germaine H-A class Anti-Fighter Frigate, overwhelming it's shields and damaging the Frigate, but destroying the Sovereign.

He frowned.

What a waste.

"Show them your will, show them your devotion to the bible!" He roared to his fleet as his Particle Beams charged, "We are strong, we are undefeatable. No enemy has ever defeated the Covenant, and this heretic's shall not defeat us! Burn them, burn those who dare say they killed God."

He glared at the Stormcrow as he unleashed a hail of Phase Missiles. The Missile tubes shuddered as their deadly devices launched out, and vanished in a flash of light several meters from the tubes, hundreds of bright lights flashing. The Imperium ships weaved back and forth as his fighters were decimated, and a Basestar erupted in flames and was burned by the sheer number of weapons on the enemy ships.

A Journeyman took pot shots at his shields, the advanced shielding flaring as they absorbed the hits and drained half of the impact's to power the shielding generator. His eyes trained the Light Cruiser as hundreds of bright lights erupted between the shields and around the ship itself.

Coming out of Slipstream Space, the Phase Missiles detonated between and around and inside the ship. It was a lucky success – he had no doubt that the Imperium, as the Imperium of Man had done, would adapt to prevent this from occurring again. And unlike the Imperium of Man, it would be in seconds, not years as it had taken the Covenant's last Crusade Enemy.

An Assault Carrier shuddered under the massive blows of the enemy weapons, the powerful Ori-type Beam Weapons smashing on the Forerunner shields and breaking them layer by layer… eventually destroying it. He brushed the loss aside, although it did pain him to lose such loyal followers.

These casualties, while severe, could be replaced. The real threat was the six hundred or so blasphemous vessels arriving soon. Only the full force of a Crusade Fleet could match that.

"The Covenant does need a new Crusade," he said to himself, "I can test the loyalty of my people."

He closed his eyes and spoke to his people in the other dimensions and in this Pocket Dimension:

"Warriors of the Covenant," he declared, "The time is at hand to test our faith – the Lord has sent us a new opponent, a new heresy. This Galactic Imperium threatens us with blasphemous words – and as such, I henceforth declare that of this moment, to all vessels and warriors…"

"SO BEGINS A NEW CRUSADE!"

-----

The Hierarch took his seat in his Gravity Throne, and smiled as he felt the Slipstream Drives disengage, and raised the multi-layered energy shields, and armed the vast arsenal of Drones, Plasma Pulse batteries, Particle Beams, and Phase Missiles. The Archangel possessed a large arsenal of weapons, two million mini-Drones as well as four hundred standard sized drones that were, in reality, thirty drones stuck together to cause massive amounts of damage.

The Archangel had two hundred plasma batteries around its hull, as well as several Particle Beams that fired at the speed of light at its prow. The Phase Missiles were an old technology, but were extremely unique. They weren't particularly strong, but when fired, they travelled through Slipstream space and, unless their opponent could disrupt Slipstream travel. But it took fifty Phase Missiles to equal just half the strength of a Drone weapon…

-----

Tom-043 knew that his ship was lost. Stormcrow was a good ship but not worth him or the things aboard. He immediately got to work as the ship trembled under enemy fire. He beamed down data modules and stored bug-form replicators, and finally himself. Just before he beamed off, he set Stormcrow to a tracking mode and set it at a collision course with the enemy's flagship, and placed the engines at ramming speed. Of course he did not forget to set the self-destruct to go off at the moment of impact.


	5. Chapter 5

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Fuhrer, the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

**Replies to Reviews/Comments:**

**The Hidden Sith:** Heh... more battles will come up! Soon!

**Morgomir:** Thank you! I am delighted that you like it!

**Alpha Omega Protocol:** Thanks, that fan-dream is what I thought of when I wrote the SG:GI... and the poll is in the profile page of Fuhrer... I might have one too...

**simply Eric:** Well, GEK's ships would only be like 100million KM or so in length but it is not quite decided...

**FishGod:** Yes, the Alesian involvement is one of the twists...

**Swimmerdude220:** Just keep reading...

**Fuhrer:** Reviewing your own story again? sigh! and LOL!

* * *

Special thanks to Fuhrer, my co-writer, who has began a poll on who wins this epic story...

* * *

**Chapter 5  
**

The Hierarch's advanced systems detected that the Humanoid Replicator onboard the Stormcrow had beamed out… and had left the vessel for an automated course. Where, he didn't care. He hoped it was back to his dimension – to spread that the Covenant was not weak, that they were willing to comprise. That the Covenant was strong, that God was with them.

He hoped.

In truth, he felt some fear. The Covenant had not been born for war – it had been formed to bring races he wanted together under one banner. He blinked and groaned, holding his head in his hand. The pain…. So much pain… he was so close to achieving the level of power of a God… but the sheer will power it needed and the corruption that it demanded was a constant pain. But as the Second Son of God, it was acceptable, once he went to godhood, he would bring his loyal followers into Heaven with him, to join in peace and salvation.

He promised it – and he would keep it.

He would not lie.

~Concentrate fire on one ship at a time, ~ he ordered on a secure broadband to his Ship Masters.

He would speak through them on their Neutral Interface Network, impossible to penetrate, but with his headache, he didn't want to make it worse. His vessels obeyed the order as the 31 warships, the most powerful warships in the entire Covenant, fired on a Journeyman, the powerful Plasma Batteries discharging as swarms of Drones and Phase Missiles cut through the multiple shields, and went through the shield, grazing the engines of a Gemaine Frigate.

"Burn in wretched hell, Heretics!"

The Hierarch spat as his batteries warmed for another attack. The two hundred plasma batteries scattered across the hull charged. Each battery held four individual turrets, meaning that each time a battery fired, four beams shot out, each individual. His weapons targeted twelve Brown V-III class Patrol Ships and fired, destroying those ships with relative ease. Their technology was advanced, their shields slightly stronger than those of the Covenant (he desired to study their technology and adapt it to his own,) but they gave away to extreme fire power.

A Baseship took a hit for a Assault Carrier, its shields flaring as some of it's armor was burned away by the Ori-Beam like weapons. The Hierarch was amazed – they were more powerful than the Ori Beams he had initially encountered years ago, but so similar… very similar. He wondered why they still used such inefficient weapons, since they drained a surprising amount of power just to fire, but perhaps they had improved upon it, which was understandable. The Cylon Basestar turned, moving it's damaged side away from damage. He was proud to see the Borg-Cylon-Wraith-Multi Metal Hull repairing, strands of metal linking together as organic flesh grew over the damaged parts, like a muscle as the armor crawled over it. Assault Carrier tried to tried to protect, where shattered hulls as the small forces continued to fight. Suddenly his focus went on the Stormcrow, and his eyes widened as it continued it's direct course for him, the bridge.

"They would not… surely they realize that cannot penetrate my shields!"

Still, the ship came. The Humanoid Replicators must have left it on auto-pilot, and set it to self-destruct. He still didn't know enough on the power of the self-destruct had, but the worst case scenario was that it would drain his shields. His batteries were already firing on multiple ships at  
once, and he looked in horror as the ship neared with increasing speed…

~FOR THE COVENANT! ~

BOOM!

There was a terrific explosion as his Scout Ship, the one he had sent to investigate the portal, rammed the Stormcrow, destroying both ships and enveloping both vessels in a flare, a crimson and blue glow. A flower of explosions and fire, of unstable energy cores and engine overload caused shockwaves to erupt and spread, and they caused grave damages, far more than what Hierarch had expected. Several ships close by were instantly drained of their shields as the powerful shockwave followed by pulsing waves of damaging energy bombarded them. Some armours ruptured and hull integrity lowered. Other ships also lost some of their shields, including the Archangel, who was most protected by the sacrifice of the ship, whose hull absorbed most of the damage heading toward the Covenant flagship.

-----

The Imperial Grand Shuttle, the main mode of transport that the God Emperor during the past six centuries was a grand ship. Though merely 12km in length, 8km in height and 5km in width, the ship was still the peak of the Imperial technology. The best weapons, shields and power sources were installed, and the best of everything was there. Inside, the God Emperor, the Lord of the Galactic Imperium, the ruler of over 90 galaxies across 50 dimensions, sat in his throne, surrounded by his Guardians and his Warmasters. To his right was Grazak, the Prime Minister of Imperial Household, or as the Warmasters called him the 'Butler'. The High Warmaster Ba'al, and the favoured Warmaster and the adopted son of the God Emperor, Lord Regent Anakin Vader Skywalker, also known as Darth Vader, stood before the God Emperor. Grazak spoke.

"My lords, my God, we have encountered another pan-dimensional empire. They resist the light and true path of the Imperium. The Imperial High Command request clearance for military actions."

Ba'al chuckled.

"Seems simple to me, my lord. Destroy them."

The Emperor peered down at the Supreme System Lord of the Goa'uld.

"That seems to be the only thing in your mind, isn't it, Ba'al?"

Ba'al smirked.

"Of course, they refuse to bow before their true gods. They will die."

Vader growled.

"You mean one true God, Lord Ba'al? Only God Emperor is the deity there is."

Ba'al chuckled.

"You forget I am a God. Even if my alliegence is to God Emperor."

Chuckling, the God Emperor raised his finger and pain coursed through Ba'al. Ba'al scream as he rolled on the floor. Vader sneered.

"Funny how a god crawls in pain, Lord Ba'al."

Ba'al gasped as he got his breath back.

"You will get yours soon enough, Vader. You won't always be in favor with our Lord."

"Perhaps, but right now, you seem to be the one in disfavour, my lord."

The Emperor raised his hands.

"Silence."

Vader quickly bowed, and Ba'al followed suit. The Emperor continued.

"This 'Covenant Empire' is large enough to be decent threat to the Imperium. Unlike the Imperium of Man, I think this new empire can provide enough war for at least thirty thousand years."

Vader asked curiously.

"How so, my master? Are they so powerful?"

Ba'al sneered.

"Not even the Alesian Empire and the Imperium of Man provided more than 14,000 years of war for the Galactic Imperium."

Vader glared at Ba'al.

"That is why I am asking why he believes this new enemy to be so formidable."

The Emperor answered.

"Their leader, this Hierarch, commands nearly 20 dimension and several galaxies. We have not yet met an enemy of such scale. So far all the stellar empires controlled small areas within their galaxy or spread out in couple of galaxies. Only the Tyranids have shown themselves to control several galaxies, but then they are mere beasts."

Ba'al smirked.

"What forces will be used in cleansing the enemy?"

"That is the point of this discussion. Most of the Warmasters are busy, carrying out the wars involving them. Picard and Adama will soon be relieved but others are still busy."

Vader nodded.

"And you do not want send Grand Fleets without Warmasters..."

Emperor nodded.

"Yes."

Ba'al smirked.

"I could lead the forces of the Imperium against this new foe."

Vader interject with a sneer.

"You, lord Ba'al? I am not sure whether you are capable of such feat anymore. Your failures at Darssiman Campaign had cost the Imperium nearly three whole Grand Fleets."

Ba'al glared as his eyes glowed.

"You are one to talk. Your incompetence in the last two campaigns led to heavy losses to your forces. A competent Warmaster would have been able to avoid that."

Vader flexed his armored fingers.

"My incompetence? At least I won my campaigns without the need for another Warmaster to intervene. I believe the credit the destruction of Darssiman race went to Amann."

Ba'al snarled.

"Amann is a weak Warmaster. He only finished off the enemy I had weakened. I would have won the campaign without him."

Emperor chuckled and pointed at the screen.

"Perhaps, you should tell that straight to his face, Ba'al."

Amann's face was on the screen and was glaring at Ba'al. Ba'al flinched and avoided the gaze.

"Pathetic Goa'uld. You are such an incompetent fool. Fortunately for you, I was able to spend time away from important matters to aid your failing campaign."

Emperor smiled.

"Enough, Amann. You may thrash him later. Now, I need your advice. The Emperor of Man is busy, and out of contact for three more years."

Amann nodded.

"Yes, the campaign he is on is a most difficult one. It seems to me that this new threat should be eliminated quickly, before it has the chance to launch an offensive into the Imperium."

"It is not their offensive that worries me, Amann. I will not lose, and I cannot lose. Our victory must be ensured, but without their complete destruction. This war must last at least thirty thousand years for it to be worthy any effort of conquering them."

Amann frowned.

"Why so long....oh...of course. You want them to push the Galactic Imperium to its limits, advancing it in war. And also to drive the economy of the Imperium."

"What else would be there? In fact, I want the Imperium to feel that this new enemy is threat, so that in is panic, the Imperium will take a step away from stagnation. The fight against stagnation is something that not even I can do so easily."

"Something I know of very well. Although, I do like a quick victory. You know I prefer the enemies to be dead, even though I do see the value in a prolonged war."

"How would you advise, Amann? Who should I send on this campaign? Picard and Adama are good fleet commanders, but they are still busy, and Sylar is no leader of men."

"Why not send Vader and Ba'al. Ba'al may be a mewling infant and incompetent, but I am sure Vader is worthy enough to keep Ba'al from losing too many fleets."

Vader raised his chin in pride as Ba'al growled. The Emperor thought for a moment then nodded.

"Very well, Amann. However, I will expect you back soon. This Covenant Empire is more than what we have faced before. I shall dispatch Sheriden to relieve you as soon as he is free of his duties."

Amann smirked.

"Keep me advised about Ba'al here. His failures amuse me. I will be back soon. My campaign continues, but it isn't victorious yet. I will need a little more time to make sure the end result can be achieved without my oversight."

"That is important, Amann. Your victory keeps me pleased and even you shall feel my wrath if you were ever to fail me."

Amann nodded.

"Of course, my lord. I take pride in being one of the few Warmasters that hasn't lost a single campaign yet."

"Very good. I am hoping that Picard will be free within next four years or so, perhaps next year at the earliest. The D'raxi'Gfarr are a deadly adversary. Who knew such race existed in Terminator Dimension. Good thing Picard is there to clean it up. John Conner would never have survived it."

Amann smirked.

"While I am not fond of Picard with his choice for diplomacy where force should be used, he is a competent leader."

"Well, his diplomacy have kept over ten thousand worlds from being attacked by D'raxi'Gfarr, so that proves his diplomatic skills at least."

Amann laughed.

"I'm just used to a hard-handed approach. War should be hard, fast, and brutal as possible. That way it is over quicker."

"Remember that Imperium's wars are not meant to end quickly. They must drag on."

"Yes. Is there anything else, my Lord?"

"Give me a report on your campaign. I understand that this space-faring organic ship race called... Bel'brahar are formidable?"

"They are. But they will fall before the might of my Alesians. We have pushed them back to the core of their territory. They do not give up, forcing us to exterminate them. I estimate their homeworld will be in Imperium hands within two years, and cleanup operations will last another 3 years. Casualties are moderate to heavy, but well below what I first predicted."

"Hmm, the reports have indicated some sort of bio-plasma more lethal than that of the Tyranids, have your people taken samples?"

"Yes, we have been able to counter it, but when we first encountered it....it was lethal. We will be victorious soon. Who knows? I might be around just in time to join the war against the Covenant Empire. I could show Ba'al how a real war is conducted."

Amann chuckled.

"Don't recall my too quick though. I want some entertainment of Ba'al making a fool of himself."

"Very well. We will see each other soon enough, Warmaster Amann."

Amann flashed off the screen.

-----

"Rest in peace honorable warriors," the Hierarch whispered, lowering his head, "You are now in peace amongst your ancestors in the Kingdom of Heaven. You shall enjoy both peace and salvation now, for you are with God and my brother, and the just of heart and the good."

He closed his eyes for a brief moment and then opened them.

There was still the manner of the heretical ships to attend to. The smaller warships, the Europa Corvettes and Brown-II Patrol Ships had been destroyed in the blast from the two colliding Scout Ships. A few remained, badly damaged lesser ships, hiding behind the larger Journeyman Light Cruisers and Gemaine Anti-Fighter Frigates. The larger ships were badly damaged, their hulls burned in certain areas and their shields overwhelmed, all of them badly damaged.

He frowned.

The state of his fleet fared slightly better.

Being Capital Ships, Cruisers and Carriers, their shields managed to take the brunt of the damage away from the hull. Several Basestars and two Assault Carriers were lost due to the damage they had sustained previously. The surviving ships, a mere eighteen in total, swarmed around the Archangel.

"So much damage, and from such inferior and heretical foes," the Hierarch muttered in shock, "How is this possible? Truth, the Imperium possesses just as advanced technology as I… but with the power of the Lord, we should have emerged with far less casualties."

Even his flagship, the Archangel had not been spared from damage. Its hull had not been too severely damaged, the various layers of shielding and brushed off much of the energy from the nearby explosion, but he still suffered damage. His shields, as had the shields of all the vessels, had been depleted.

But even as he thought, he knew that the armour of his flagship was being repaired, was healing. Soon enough, whatever damage he and his fleet sustained would be repaired in just a few minutes, whilst the damage the fleet of the Blasphemous forces of the Galactic Imperium would remain.

The Ship Master of one of his surviving Assault Carriers spoke to him: ~Holy one, are you safe, are you secured? ~

"Do not worry for I am safe," the Hierarch replied, "Calm yourself, and focus purely on the Evil of the Galactic Imperium. Destroy what remain of their ships, and then burn the world."

~By your will. ~

The shields of the Archangel began to flicker back to life, and he resumed combat by firing and destroying a severely damaged Journeyman Light Cruiser. "All vessels resume the purge! A Crusade has begun, and we shall not stop until the curse and heresy of this Galactic Imperium and their 'God-Emperor' falls to the might of God and the will of the Covenant!

"Onward, Noble Warriors!"

Beams and what was left of the drones and his Phase Missiles streaked towards the surviving Imperium warships. The ships sluggishly tried to avoid them, firing and ripping apart his drones as several warships are destroyed by his remaining Phase Missiles, vulnerable without their shields.

But that vulnerability did not last long.

"Expected," The Hierarch muttered to himself as a pair of Plasma Beams smashed on the recovering shields of an Anti-Fighter Frigate, overwhelming them again. A Basestar turned and avoided an Ori-type Beam Weapon, the beam sliding through the spikes of the Y-shaped structure.

Death and more death.

And more…

And more…

A never ending pattern.

And one that demanded payment in blood as well – and he would spill the blood of the Imperium.

"All Basestars engage the heretical warships," he declared to his loyal followers, "All Carriers bombard the world. Leave nothing but ash and death upon the surface. Leave none alive."

His carriers stopped firing and manoeuvred towards the planet, and moved closer to the tainted world. The surviving opposing vessels were quickly being decimated; their hulls were far too damaged to be of sufficient strength. And their shields quickly fell to the sheer amount of beams smashing against them.

Suddenly a Journeyman turned and rammed itself into a Baseship, the sheer size and strength of the vessel braking through the shields of the starfish-shaped vessel, and enveloping ships in a glorious blaze. It wasn't isolated case – another Journeyman and two Anti-Fighter Frigates rammed one of his Assault Carriers, destroyed it. "They would commit suicide to try and achieve victory?" He growled, furious at the lack of honour and pride.

Despite this, he had to admit it would cause damage. He had few ships left, and the enemy also had few ships left.

"Destroy them, destroy them before they can hurt our Holy Ships," he declared, roaring as he speared a Journeyman with the prow of his vessel. He was agitated; he hadn't been agitated in such a long time. The wars of the Galactic Imperium lasted such long periods of time, thousands of years.

Not the Crusades of the Covenant, the longest had been against the Imperium (not counting the Marvel Zombies,) which lasted one hundred thirty two years. Entire generations of the Covenant had been wiped out and entire Crusade Fleets had been lost – corruption and the curse of those 'Chaos Gods' and unholy and overwhelming armies had been devastating.

But they'd won, they purged countless worlds, and defeated the Tyranid's, defeated everyone that stood in their way. He was still worried though – the Galactic Imperium was far larger than the Imperium of Man had been, possessed heretical technology and had extremely large military forces. And in a war that could last thousands of years, it would stretch the Covenant to the limit.

The shields of his flagship held as a Frigate crashed into it, and his plasma batteries burned away another. One of his Baseships collapsed under sustained fire from a Journeyman, whilst two more were destroyed by suicide ships. His surviving Sovereign, which still remained (and surprised him), was finally destroyed by the last Patrol Frigate that remained.

He smirked.

"Let us see if their world can handle the beams of a Particle Beam…"

Two silver-hued beams shot out and vanished in a instant, and whilst no one could see the beams, they traveled at the speed of light.

The Hierarch crossed his arms over his chest as he awaited the destruction of the main continent of the world.


	6. Chapter 6

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Hierach (changed from Fuhrer), the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

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**chaosknight:** Sorry, but the Void Keeper wants these two to fight...

**Morgomir:** Always appreciate your review!

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**tamahome8:** Thanks!

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Special thanks to Hierach, my co-writer, who has began a poll on who wins this epic story...

* * *

**Chapter 6  
**

"Commodore, we will be arriving at the solar system in five minutes."

"Very good, commander. Do we have any further reports?"

"No, sir. All communications has been lost to the system."

"What is that system called?"

"It is still undesignated, sir. Tom-043 had no such authority."

"I see… Do I have the authority?"

"You have the authority to temporarily designate it in accordance with the alphanumeric system, but only the Admiralty and the Administration can designate a real name for it."

"I see. Well, prepare the fleet for battle. I think that loss of communication means that the defending fleet is lost."

"Yes, sir. I will alert the fleet."

The Vanguard Heart, the heart and core of the Vanguard Fleet of an Imperial Grand Fleet, numbered exactly 637 ships. Led by a single flagship, with a specific size classification, and made of decent number of medium to heavy ships, the Vanguard Heart was the heavy reinforcement for the light scout role which is sole role of a Vanguard Fleet. There were other fleet elements in the Vanguard Fleet apart from the Vanguard Heart. The Taskforce Arrowhead was the primary scouting elements of the fleet, which scouted vast areas for information that could be useful. Of course, numbering 587 ships, including three hundred Light Light ships and a hundred Miscellaneous ships, the fleet was not deemed to able to take on a more heavily armed opposition. This was the view from the Imperium's side, and not the enemies'. The enemies who encounter an Arrowhead often find themselves overwhelmed by the number, technology and firepower. In truth the real firepower that supported the Vanguard Fleet was the Taskforce Hammerhead, a small fleet of ships that specialised in anti-capital ship fighting, or a Taskforce Blade, which was smaller than Hammerhead and usually worked as a reserve fleet for Hammerhead, which mostly engages at the frontlines of a war.

-----

Tom-043 sneered as he looked up. The shield held well, and powered by the nearly three hundred stationary power generators scatter all around the compound, each producing about 30% of a Mark 6 ZPM-2, the shield and the rest of the compound were well supplied with power. Indeed, the power equal to the output of ninety Stormcrows was impressive. With the factories and other non-essential facilities shut down, most of the powers were diverted to the shield and other battlestation structures. The second priority for the power usage was the various towers and turrets around the compound. Six hundred or so anti-fighter turret towers that stood 25m from the ground were scattered all across the massive city compound, placed with such meticulous allocation that they formed an impressive field of fire that had no holes. The one hundred anti-orbit towers were also scattered around the compound, placed for maximum arc of fire. These towers, though demanding far more power than anti-fighter turrets, fired powerful pulse weapon that easily reach beyond the atmosphere. The optimum ranges were between one hundred thousand and five hundred thousand kilometres but up to a million kilometres were also fine. The only problem was the explosive nature of its weapon, forcing it to hold fire if there were allied fleet engaged against the enemy fleet. They fired a version of Ori/Alesian beam weapon, but in three pulses rather than a single large pulse/beam. By adding transphasic properties, the weapon could penetrate most shields, and explode. The instability of the pulses were deliberately left alone, as this accidental discovery of the great seismic pulse generated by explosion of the pulse rather than it maintaining its form, granted the ability to cripple smaller ships, which was the problem for previous versions of anti-orbit weapons.

"By the Emperor, they are using particle beams. Who do they think we are? Some primitives? It is far more effective than some of the others, but this is ridiculous. Particle beams indeed."

Tom muttered to himself as the Clone officers nodded. One of them, who bore the marking of security forces, spoke with some concern.

"The nature of particle beams means that they can continue to pour down this attack almost indefinitely. Eventually, they may overwhelm the shield generators. We don't have energy recycling capacitors for the absorption shields, sir."

"Their ships are gravely damaged by the suicidal runs, and they cannot muster enough power to break the shield before our reinforcements arrive. We only need to hold it till then."

"Yes, sir."

"Fire the anti-orbit weapons. We have no more ships up there… at least none that is important."

"Yes, sir. This will tax the powers, however. Not all of the power generators are completed, and they are not producing maximum power. It may weaken the shield."

"By how much?"

"Approximately 7%, sir."

"That is within the acceptable parameter. Return fire!"

"Yes, sir."

-----

"Planetary Defense Shield," The Hierarch said,"interesting, so we are not dealing with arrogant heretics, despite their wayward ways." His eyes glowed briefly and he made a fist.

"None the less," he muttered, "I still have many ships to use and our plasma batteries can rain destruction as can my Particle Beams. Our lack of Drones and Phase Missiles are indeed an issue… I wonder how their shields will be able to affect the Slipstream navigation of my missiles. Though, based on the fact that they were only able to slip between the shields of the enemy vessels, it is most likely they would simply explode upon contact with the shield."

Suddenly his vessel shook, and the synthetic light's flickered slightly and he growled in fury as an Assault Carrier was impacted by pulses of high intensity beams from the planet's defensive systems. He was furious. He had a handful of ships left, and he lost yet another ship. Those planetary weapons were strong, very strong, as were the shields, he had to admit.

"Two hours of constant bombardment," he said, admiringly.

Five Crusade Fleet's, remnants of his original fleet's that had conquered and brought other dimensions into the Covenant were coming. In one week, 1, 0000 ships would be in this dimension and in four weeks, two more Crusade Fleet's would arrive. Even more, captured warships from across the Covenant, from those of the Romulan's and the Borg to O'Neill's and Star Destroyers, would arrive as well.

But there was a downside.

"The small size of the portal restricts my larger vessels from coming," the Hierarch said to himself. "Thus my Star Dreadnaught's and larger capital ships will unable to come – including the Lucifer." He frowned that – "The only way I will be able to bring it into this galaxy is to dismantle it."

He winced. The Lucifer had gone through much; it had been his flagship for the entire history of the Covenant. It would be disgraceful if he dismantled it… but he knew, after this small skirmish, that he would require all of his ships to defeat and purge these cruel beings.

HOLY ONE.

The Hierarch closed his eyes, arms crossed over his chest. One of his AI's was speaking to him over his Neural Interface Implants. "What is it? What is so important as to disturb the Second Son?"

UNKNOWN VESSELS APPROACHING THE SYSTEM, THE ESTIMATED SIZE OF UNKNOWN FLEET IS 700 VESSELS. POWER READINGS INDICATE POWER SOURCE SIMILAR TO THAT OF GALACTIC IMPERIUM SHIPS.

The Hierarch paled in anger and shock. Several hundred warships, capital ships and support ships? He had lost a fair number of his Capital Ships to a mere number of heretical light ships. He only had two hundred Assault Carrier's and Baseships, one hundred CCS-class Battlecruisers.

Besides that, he had fifty Goa'uld-captured Ha'tak's and seventy Covenant Destroyers as well as thirty Victory-class Star Destroyers that had only just arrived.

WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS HOLY ONE?

He frowned.

What would he do now? Despite his overwhelmingly ship numbers, 450 in total, which was a little more than half the number of the incoming Imperium ships. But he had only half of those numbers fully manned, and a quarter of those that weren't fully manned, operated by skeleton crew.

HOLY ONE?

The path was obvious.

He glared at the world as a Baseship was bombarded by a series of blasts, and careened into another Basestar, both enveloped in a fiery blaze. ~All manned ships come to the farthest outpost and await further decrees, ~ he ordered to his garrisoning fleet. ~The Crusade is just beginning – this will prove our honor the lord, and our devotion to the path. ~

"You shall pay for your undesired arrival into Holy Territory," he roared on all frequencies, making sure the heretical world would hear, "No matter how long it takes, we will burn you to ash!"

He swallowed his pride.

"All units….

"Retreat."

-----

Tom sneered as he saw the enemy fleet leaving in hurry, with the Imperial fleet to arrive within five minutes. On one hand, he wished that the enemy had stayed longer and get crushed by the might of the Imperium, but he was also relieved that the siege was over. As soon as the last enemy ship left the system, Tom ordered the forces to stand down, and stay at Yellow Alert. It did not take long before the seven hundred or so vessels of various sizes arrived above the planet. Only then the Green Alert, i.e. normal situation, was restored.

The God Emperor mused as he arrived in front of the portal. One of the UFP Starfleet's tributary fleets was standing guard around the portal, hundreds of Constructors busy building defences and portal gate around the portal itself. The portal appeared remarkably stable, and the God Emperor confirmed that this was really done by the Void Keeper, the eternal tormentor of the Galactic Imperium. He watched from his enormous shuttle as the Picard D-class Super Dreadnought, the flagship of the Starfleet's tributary fleet, was surrounded by dozens of Starfleet shuttles and smaller ships. The Picard D-class Super Dreadnought was the largest ship in the UFP Starfleet's armada. 9km in length, the ship looked like a heavily armoured Sovereign class with four warp nacelles. However, the main difference on this ship, like other Picard class dreadnoughts, was the heavily bloated underbelly of the ship. Looking like a Sovereign class ship stuck under it upside down, the underside of the ship was also filled with as numerous weapons as the ship did on top.

Like the rest of the Starfleet, the ships still relied on the bi-weapon system, having a primary weapon and secondary weapon, while the most of the other protectorates now used tri-weapon system. However, this did not mean that the Federation's ships were weak. Their Mk22 Transphasic Disruption Phasers were nearly as powerful as 25% of the Ori/Alesian beam used by the Imperium, but with relatively greater firing rate. The use of Neutron-Quantum Singularity Torpedoes were extremely high wield heavy weapon comparable to fifty Transphase-Cloak Disruption Drones used by the Imperium's own fleets. Of course, the fact that the Drones are often fired in small swarms had still meant the superiority of the Imperium. With the Mk17 Multi-Phasic Harmonics Deflector shield was also powerful enough to fight almost any opponents, except for the Imperium itself and several of the more advances protectorates within the Imperium.

While the Picard-D Super Dreadnought was the choice ship for a flagship in the Federation and nearly thirty of them has been built, these were old ships, designed and built nearly a thousand years ago. Now, the Federation has designed Janeway-B class Super Dreadnought to replace the aging Picard-D class ships. For that reason, two of the obsolete ships were given as a gift to the Imperium's war efforts, which the God Emperor diverted to his new project to conquer the pocket dimension. To that aspect, the tributary fleet recently returned from an expedition was diverted to the portal to guard it. Tributary fleets are part of Imperial Tribute from each protectorate. As a law, each Protectorate was commanded to send 10% of their overall military forces as well as the 5% tax. The UFP-Protectorate, which encompassed a large area within the Star Trek galaxy, including the former interstellar empires like the Klingon Empire, Romulan Empire, Garidian Republic, Cardassian Union, Talarian Republic, Tholian Assembly, Gorn Hegemony and many more smaller empires across the entire Alpha Quadrant, contributed three standard fleets, each fleet consisting of nearly fifty capital ships and three hundred lesser ships. These three fleets were 10% of the Starfleet's entire armada.

The Sovereign class ships still dominated the ranks of the capital ships though they were mostly Sovereign-K class or Sovereign-L class, and many Galaxy-M class ships and some new capital ships had taken their place in the Starfleet. Swarms of Defiant-J class ships were patrolling the surroundings while Axiom-class frigates slowly circled the fleet parameters. The God Emperor watched them all, a small smile forming at the ends of his mouth, though the mask still hid his face. He slowly turned and a Wraith knelt there, waiting for the Emperor's words.

"Warmaster Todd."

The Wraith Todd bowed deeper.

"Yes, my lord…"

"You have done well, this time."

"Thank you, master."

The Emperor did not even nod as he gently glided to the nearby table and slowly grabbed one of the fresh grapes. He rolled the grape between his gauntlet claws.

"I have a new mission for you."

Todd bowed again.

"As you command, my Emperor."

The Emperor released the grape, and it floated in the air. God Emperor's telekinesis was so powerful that he could literally crush an entire planet into a small ball of incredibly dense and hard metal, which he called it Galaxium, and had once begun to crush one whole galaxy into metallic balls of Galaxium, but the protest from most of his Warmasters including the God Emperor of Mankind, the plan was abandoned and only ten thousand planets were converted into Galaxium. His powers did not just have raw power, but he also commanded incredible subtlety. The Emperor began to peel the grape, and did not hurt a single cell. The peeling came off so gently, then reformed, the cells reattaching. Then the Emperor slowly put the grape into his mouth, slowly chewing.

"Take your fleet and enter the portal. You shall scout the enemy's presence and attack them."

"My lord, as I understand it, the portal is not large enough for my ship or the dreadnoughts to enter through…"

"Take the lesser ships then. You have the ZPMs, so you may grow your Hive Ships and Hive Battlecruisers when you are already inside the pocket galaxy."

"Yes, my lord… and will I be going alone?"

"I shall enter the galaxy soon. You shall pave me a path of bodies, Warmaster Todd."

"Yes, my Emperor."

-----

The Combined Fleet of Divine warships assembled at the farthest  
outpost from the main world's of the Imperium. Hundreds of  
Destroyers, Baseships, Assault Carriers, Ha'tak's, Star Destroyers and  
Battlecruisers formed formation. A little less than 50 ships from  
full strength, the Combined Fleet was still composed of the most  
powerful warships in the tiny Pocket Galaxy.

The few hundred thousand warriors, engineers, workers, farmers and  
more on the tiny outpost toiled endlessly. The outpost encompassed a  
quarter of the Super-Earth it was situated on. Despite being far from  
the capital world in the Galaxy, this outpost was one the oldest. The  
planet was the reason it had been formed so early, a planet that was  
so rare, it was the only one of its kind. The planet's crust held  
several different metals, metal's that essential to the construction  
of his warships. He had analyzed the hulls of the Galactic Imperium  
ships, read the files in the short period of time he had access to

them.

While their uses of metals were incredible, his knowledge on mixing  
and combining the various metals he commanded was far superior. His  
hulls were stronger, though the Imperium's knowledge on weaponry  
almost negated that advantage.

He smirked.

Almost.

In terms of defense and offensive weaponry, shielding and more, the  
Imperium and the Covenant were on near par. In some area's the  
Covenant exceeded them, in some areas the Imperium surpassed the  
Covenant. "Yet it took them millennia to reach the level they are at  
now," he said to himself, brooding in the bridge of the Archangel.  
"The Covenant has been advancing for a mere several centuries to this  
level…. and the power of the Covenant still expands."

That part was true. Technological development was an important part  
of the Covenant – it was one of the 'Commandments.' Even thought the  
last Crusade had been centuries ago, he lead the Covenant to believe  
that the Final Crusade, the Last Crusade that would show their  
ultimate faith in God, was at hand. Initially, he had leaded them to  
believe it was against the Marvel Zombies. But now, with the arrival  
of the Galactic Imperium, things had changed.

Reports on new discoveries took time to travel through dimensions.  
Now, it was even more so since he arrived in this desolate galaxy. He  
was certain that the Void Keeper, the maniacal and heretic being who  
dared declare himself superior to the Holy Father, was causing the  
disturbance. He was also certain that the Void Keeper was playing a  
new game now, a game that used the Covenant as one side of the chess  
board, the Imperium on the other.

He growled.

He stood up and raised his arms to his side, his eyes flaring as he  
reached out to a small cluster of stars in the distant arm of the  
galaxy, far enough so that it was barely part of the Pocket Galaxy,  
and tore them apart. The effort to do so was simple; he had stolen  
the abilities of countless beings in the name of the Lord. He  
squeezed the stars until they were simple husks, and wrapped their  
heat and plasma to form rings around the husks. He created intricate  
patterns on them with Divine-powered Sun Flares and melded them  
together to form a single star. His gaze was long (though he couldn't  
see the actions of the Imperium,) and he saw his work despite the  
light-years that separated them.

He still amused himself with how great his power was. A star cluster  
stars separated by a few to a dozen light-years, combined into a  
single Great Star. Eighteen star systems, eliminated in a single  
second and a new star system replacing them. It was amazing and  
beautiful. But if God wanted Giant Stars to occupy his works of art,  
he would have created them himself. But he did not want it so, and so  
his son's work of art was just a disgrace. And the Hierarch, agreed,  
for he did not want to upset his Father, the Divine Lord. He lowered  
his arms, and the stare exploded, sending radiation and shockwaves  
that would take decades, perhaps centuries, to reach any world within  
the Covenant, or the Imperium.

Feeling calmed, enough, he walked out of his bridge, the metallic  
boots clanking in the empty room. His cape flowed behind him, as he  
walked out and passed his two Horus Guard's. As the Guard's followed  
him, Energy Staves at ready, the three of them were beamed into the  
oversight deck of the Main Shipyard facility. The facility was  
hovering in space, and was 20 kilometers in length, and had the  
personal and materials to build ten Assault Carriers at once.

There were four shipyards orbiting the planet, a small number since  
his most industrialized world, Coruscant, had eight four of the  
massive shipyards, and he didn't count the Star Forge (which was  
de-activated,) as a shipyard since it was so much more. Right now,  
however, the facility was building four Assault Carriers, five  
CCS-class Battlecruisers, 2 Basestar's, and another ship. With a calm  
collection, the Hierarch walked off the platform and walked in  
mid-space, admiring the near-completed Main Battle Platform.

The ship was a sleek and elegant design as were most of the ships in  
the Covenant. Nine kilometers in length, it was an independently  
built ship, Sangheili-Cylon design. He allowed limited ship  
invention, being that he felt the ships that were already built were  
sufficient to win any way. And, since the formation of the Covenant,  
he had been proved right. Only occasionally had he felt the need to  
build ships of entirely new design. And those instances were rare,  
and only a handful of ships existed that were not from any known

dimension.

The ship was termed 'Primary Combat Assault Platform,' or PCAP. He  
hated the term; it was stupid, yet the Sangheili and the Cylon's had  
the right to name the ship whatever they wanted. It possessed four  
powerful Sublight engines, as well as a Cylon Jump Drives. The  
stability of the Jump Drives had improved over the centuries, and they  
could cross five hundred light-years in a single jump. It was in the  
shape of a star, the basis of the Cylon ships, with a pyramid on the  
back. On the Pylon, it had two semi-circles sticking out.

On each semi-circle were 40 Plasma Beam Weapons, and two Plasma  
Torpedo's on the edges. On each end of the star edges, it had Drone  
Launchers with a million drones in each tube. On the pylon, it had  
four launchers for Phase Missiles, with two million in each tube. An  
interesting addition, he had to remind himself of, was the inclusion  
of a modified Ori Beam Weapon. While it was not as powerful as the  
'Alesia-Ori' Weapon of the Imperium (he wondered who the Alesia's  
were,) it was still incredibly powerful, even if it ran on the ship's  
main ZPM's. The beam, though, was powered by its own pair of personal  
ZPM's-II's, completely separate from the main pair of ZPM-II's that  
the ship itself used. The Archangel had a single ZPM Hub which could  
hold three ZPM's each. He had never actually faced an opponent that  
could are oppose him, however, and none of the hub's had ZPM's.

Had he been able to foresee the invasion of the foolish Imperium, he  
would have placed ZPM's for all his weapon systems and as well as  
those of his personal guard. In fact each ship in the Imperium had at  
least a variation of sorts of a ZPM hub for their weapons, of some  
sort. Never before had the Covenant needed to use separated power  
sources for his vessels, not even against the Imperium of Mankind  
(though he had been considering it,) and now….

...

…

…

Now he did.

He walked back to the platform, not the least affected by the fact  
that he was in space or that there wasn't any gravity, and back to his  
Horus Guard's. As soon as he touched the platform, he beamed himself  
to the oversight construction room, at the heart of the shipyard. The  
Cylon Leoban copies there bowed in his presence. "Divine Hierarch,"  
they gushed, "you honor us with your presence."

"Status of the… ship?"

"Several days before completion, my lord," the lead Cylon copy said as  
they raised their heads. "The Sangheili want it to be perfect before  
they launch the Purgatio Vesica and as such-"

"Is it ready now?"

They looked at him: "Divine One?"

"The Final Test by the Lord has arrived, in greater numbers and  
ferocity and faithless than I anticipated," he said darkly. The  
copies nodded, having heard the furious message the Hierarch had sent  
across the Covenant. At long last, they would show their faith to  
God. "The Purgatio Vesica is the only others ship than can meet the  
power of the Lucifer."

They bowed.

"We will tell the Sangheili," they uttered, "The Purgatio Vesica will  
launch in two days."


	7. Chapter 7

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Hierach (changed from Fuhrer), the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

**Replies to Reviews/Comments:**

**swimmerdude220:** The portals deliberately made like that by Void Keeper... so no amount of tech is gonna solve that...

**Morgomir:** Thanks for reviewing!!!

* * *

Special thanks to Hierach, my co-writer, who has began a poll on who wins this epic story... I got a poll on my profile page too!

* * *

**Chapter 7  
**

With his fleet gathered, prepared for the certain attack on the closest Holy World to the heretical Imperium, he set forth strengthening his small grip. A few hundred worlds, with a hundred extra outposts were scattered in a loose circle from the portal linking to his Covenant. Many had billions of beings living on them already, and billions more were training for the Crusade that he had declared.

The Final Crusade… the time to prove their faith.

"And they shall not fail me," he uttered, his eyes flaring.

By now, his message had spread to the entire Covenant. Every ship, every fleet, every soldier and every legion, were on their way to defend the gate way, to guard the Pocket Galaxy, and covert the Imperium. Such a threat, a threat that dare match that of the Covenant, could not go unpunished.

The majority of his outposts already had shield generators built into them, multi-layered generators that were near-comparable to that of the Imperium's. ZPM-II's were very cheap, since Asuras had been conquered and its ZPM-building knowledge had been adapted for the Forerunner's-Ancient ZPM Hybrid. He had several worlds dedicated to the manufacturing of ZPM's, as well as commercial Plasma Generators (which provided only half the output of a ZPM,) and Mark XXV Naquadah Generators (mostly used by the elements of the Jaffa in the Milky Way-SG Galaxy.)

Besides Shield Generators, outposts were large, and the Outpost the Hierarch was at was a small one. The oldest outpost he had in this galaxy spanned ¾'s of the world, and was the most defended, and the greatest ship-production capabilities. Bunkers were built into the Outposts, going kilometres deep, able to withstand bombardment from a Particle Beam for two decades.

The bunkers were entirely self-sufficient, with small-time Plasma Generator-production facilities, extensive greenhouses, and training and manufacturing sites, Slipstream-package communication links, as well as living space for two billion. Before the conquest of the Imperium of Mankind, Bunkers had only been a fifth that size. But he learned from his mistakes.

In orbit, he had a multitude of defences as well.

Three hundred Plasma Pulse Batteries, cruder but deadlier plasma weapons than his quad-batteries, orbited the outpost. There were also Drone Launchers, twenty four, which housed two hundred Drones. As were much of his technology, they too were powered by ZPM's.

But of course, what was stopping the Imperium from by passing this outpost to others, one would ask.

Simple.

Phase Inhibitors.

Stolen from the Sins of a Solar Empire-Dimension (which still confounded him for its strange form of FTL travel,) it worked as well on all forms of FTL Travel. From the Warp Drive to Asgard Hyperdrive and Slipstream Drives, Phase Inhibitors disrupted travel and forced the ships into regular space. Better was that their range were a quarter of a light-year, and they were easy to manufacture.

He had installed safeguards to prevent tampering, and the only way to turn them off was to enter a specific code that only he knew of. Of course, the Brother Jesus and the All Father knew the code as well. It also acted as beacon, alerting him to the presence of enemy ships so that he could respond. His ships could travel without fear, but enemy ships had to travel by Sublight engines to reach the edge of the large radius of the Phase Inhibitors.

He smiled.

This war would be swift, the Lord assured him of that. Already, his Empire here was expanding. Colony ships were being sent forth, and the first reinforcements, mere ships from the Star Trek-Dimension, twenty Defiant-class ships, were arriving. In a week, the first Crusade Fleets would arrive, and in four weeks, the full fury of the Covenant would hammer upon the Galactic Imperium.

Star Trek Dimension of the Galactic Imperium…

Prior John Cavil looked on the elegant and lush scenery, a world that was so beautiful, it was a shame it was part of a heretical cause. He had beamed himself near a small city, his ship still in orbit. He was one of the first to land on nearby worlds; the hundred others would land on other nearby worlds soon. After that, the conversion of the Imperium would begin.

Hopefully, he thought, it would not be like the conversion of the last Imperium. So many had been corrupted by Chaos, so many fell to heresy and deceit, many died in the worst and longest war of the Covenant, he shuddered at just remembering it. But the Covenant had emerged victorious, and here, in this Imperium, the Covenant would emerge victorious as well.

He was concerned however, a large fleet of ships had arrived just moments after he had left the portal, which was heavily defended and armoured. He and his Brothers had managed to sneak through because it wasn't full operational. Walking closer to the city, he was stopped by a man.

"Who are you?" he said.

The Prior looked at him.

"Salvation through the Covenant."

-----

"Salvation through the Covenant."

The man tilted his head.

"Are you a man of religion?"

Cavil smiled lightly.

"Yes."

The man smiled.

"Then welcome, Prior. Welcome to Sah'hera III! Please enjoy the bountiful hospitality of our world."

Then taking Cavil by the shoulder, the man led the Prior to a small metallic circle about the size of Goa'uld ring platform in the middle of the garden. As they stepped on to the platform, the man introduced himself.

"I am Gales O'Brien, a resident of this planet."

Cavil nodded, thinking that this was a good start to have such warm welcome, but somewhere in his psychic powers, something warned him that the conversion of this Imperium was… extremely difficult not to mention… dangerous.

"Well, Gales O'Brien will you hear of the Covenant and the blessings of the Hierach?"

"Sure! I am not really an overly religious man myself, and I don't really like the temple-goers who prey incessantly to the God Emperor, but I do like religions in general."

Cavil nodded, this man may be easy to convert. However, he was planning to convert the whole planet, so he needed more information.

"Good. Please, can you tell me what your planet is like?"

Gales nodded as they were suddenly beamed off and arrived in the middle of a large plaza. The colourful tiles on the ground were exquisite and the trees and flowers were beautiful, and the structures all around them most wonderful.

"Sure! This planet is to Sah'hera III, the pride of the Collion Sector. We are a minor world but we do have significant influence through our vast trading network and great agricultural industry. We are a small world with minor population, but we get by. As you see, our standard of living is rather good, and I think it is probably because we have so few people."

"So, what is your population here?"

"We have only about 7 billion or so. We are not a heavily populated planet, you see. This sector is rather desolate, actually. Even our Sector Capital Sidrian IV only has about 30 billion people. The nearby sectors do have some more people, but this whole region is made up of planets with relatively low population."

Cavil smiled, but inside he was aghast. 7 billion people as 'minor population', and if this was only one planet in myriads of sectors, than the population of this Imperium was far greater than he had assumed. Of course, he had presumed that the Hierarch knew this, but for some reason he could not shake a sense of great danger coming to the Covenant. Gales smiled back then asked his question.

"So what is this religion that you are to preach?"

-----

The system Tom had colonised was named Grisol system, and was immediately placed under Commodore Halon XI. The three month period since the first contact with the Covenant Empire, the forces of Imperium had begun to flood the sectors near the portal. The fortifications around the gate were finally complete with hundreds of weapon platforms and dozens battle stations around the parameter. Through the newly made gate, which now protected the portal against any enemy intrusion, thousands of ships arrived every day. Most of them were cargo ships of various kinds, though almost all of them were military. The batch of a thousand new Longliner Cargo Ship variants, a ship 300m in height and 100m in width but with 2.5km length, travelled through the gate every day, transporting goods and supplies to the military colonies that were being set up all over the nearby sectors.

29 planets were designated Fortress Worlds, and a decent sized military force and defence fleet was sent to each along with the colonization ship, while 22 planets were designate Military Worlds, which was a normal planet with heightened military presence. 342 planets were designated civilian colonies and as the fleets arrived through the portal and secure the sectors, those planets were quickly swarmed over by the colonists. 17 planets were separately designated Clone Worlds, which were like Fortress Worlds except for the production of Clones and their equipments. The Fortress Worlds did not 'produce' soldiers but they did have training facilities for the conscripts and alike. One of the things done to the planets was the plantation of stargates, and defences. Each planet was given a planetary shield generator and power generator. The civilian colonies were given these first then as their colony prospers, they could purchase or requisite more defences. The Military Worlds were to be city planets and their values were greater. Therefore three shield generators, three power generators, three backup power generators, about a hundred anti-fighter turrets and a hundred anti-orbital turrets were placed down on each of the planets. The Fortress Worlds were given double the amount while the Clone Worlds got the same number as Fortress Worlds. Of course, while the Fortress Worlds and Military Worlds were being delivered their garrisons from the Imperium, the Clone Worlds, using generous amount of time dilation, produced their own troops, defences, vehicles and even ships.

The Grisol system was the core of the Imperium's initial war effort. As the first world to be colonised, the three short months have been well spent with the time dilation. The planet flourished under the governance of Commodore Halon, who was promoted to Grand Admiral after the previous Grand Admiral was 'promoted' as a Regional Govenor. Now a Grand Admiral, he commanded the entire Imperial Grand Fleet 43-095 and its nearly 20,000 ships. As commanded by the God Emperor, the Imperial Grand Fleet 43-095 was renamed Imperial Grand Fleet P1-001, and was stationed at the pocket galaxy. His 20,000 ships, though most were Light ships between 500m and 2.5km in length, were now spread across the outer-most sectors of the Imperial colonies, protecting them from the inevitable attacks by the Covenant Empire. Grand Admiral Halon himself controlled the Core Fleet of the Grand Fleet, though in reality he only directly controlled the Capital Core, while his 15 Assault Taskforces and 10 Defence Taskforces were spread out across 20 outpost planets deeper into the galaxy. 5 of the Assault Taskforces would patrol the border and kept the vigilant eye over the galaxy. The Core Fleet was made up of exactly 5030 ships, though most of them were light or medium ships, and the heavy ships only numbered 15 ships in the Capital Core, which was made up of 855 ships.

Of course, the scale of ships was very different for the Imperium. The ships' size classification was divided into eleven categories ranging from Light Light ships to Heavy Heavy ships, plus Miscellaneous ships and Oversize ships. Miscellaneous ships were the classification for any ship with the length below 500m. The Light Light ships were between 500m and 1km in length, and the Light Medium ships would vary between 2km and 4km in length. The Germanisk class Dreadnought _Edramund IIXX_, the capital ship that the Grand Admiral commanded, was a Heavy Heavy class ship with the ship's length of 72km, width 24km and height 22km. Any ship over the length of 100km was classified as Oversize, but they were not rare since the Warmasters would often have their own flagships to be bigger than 100km in length. The Germanisk class Dreadnought was an aged model, though it was still in production. Designed and produced approximately 3000 years ago, the ship was used against the final stands of the Imperium of Man and the Alesian Empire. It was a large ship with more weapons. While it was tough and its shield strong, its real advantage was its capacity to point a lot of weapons at a single target, or a lot of targets. Its primary weapon was neither the Ori/Alesian beam weapon nor the Asgard Plasma Beam. The Germanisk class employed 2000 Anti-Neutron Disruptor cannons that dotted the hull along with 1000 torpedo/drone launchers that fired Transphase-Cloak Disruption Drones, and 1200 anti-fighter turrets along with 600 ports of miscellaneous weapons.

As the Grand Admiral watched the planet below where 72 million Clones, 5 million light vehicles, 4 million heavy vehicles, 3 million air-support vehicles and supplies enough for 100 million clones for 6 months were being assembled, his First Officer, Captain Derritidus, came behind him and saluted. The Grand Admiral turned to look at his First Officer.

"Yes, Captain?"

"Grand Admiral, we have just received the word. Warmaster Todd has completed the re-construction of his fleet, and the God Emperor has arrived in this galaxy."

The Grand Admiral nodded.

"So, the Emperor is here to oversee this particular campaign… Interesting. We shall double our efforts for victory."

"Yes, Grand Admiral."

"Did he come alone?"

"Sir?"

"The Emperor… did he come as a visitor or as a conqueror?"

"He brought with him two Grand Fleets, sir. I think that qualifies him as a conqueror."

"Well, it's about time. The history books tell us that he has not been in a real war for nearly 2000 years since the defeat of the Alesians and the Imperium of Man."

"Yes, sir."

-----

Hallowed Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree bared his mandibles, eager for a challenge. Though the life of a Sangheili was long, 200 years in length, he was an ancient being. Several centuries old, he was kept alive only because the Hierarch demanded it is so. He was immortal, the gift given by the Hierarch during the peaceful (he growled at that word,) assimilation of the world where the Covenant acquired its Knightmare Frames.

He smirked.

Knightmare Frames were small, 20 meters tall, but they were deadly, fast, agile, easily mass-producible, and intimidating. Modern Knightmare Frames were based on the Archangel, the signature Knightmare of Zero. They possessed multi-layers of advanced shielding and were powered by a ZPM and Naquadria-Sakuradite compound liquid Core. Sakuradite and Naquadria both were unstable, and together became all the most unstable. But they had found ways around the instability and while not as powerful as a ZPM, they were comparable to the newer Naquadah Generators.

Knightmares had been instrumental in the subduing of the Imperium and the other powers that existed in that nightmarish dimension. The Imperium had sheer numbers and their devilish form of 'physic powers' but their weapons and technology had been unable to match that of the Covenant.

But the progress of Conversion had been severely slowed because of the 'Warp,' which disrupted Slipstream Space travel. It also disrupted Hyperspace travel, Phase Travel, and Warp Drive, transforming the quick and easy travel into a sea of cruelty and evil, of possession and fear.

He closed his eyes, remembering.

But now was not the time to remember.

Not now.

Not ever.

On the bridge of the Purgatio Vesica, he flexed his clawed hands and split his mandibles into a grin. The newest warship in the vast fleet of the Covenant, the Purgatio Vesica was his personal ship. The ship hovered in space for a brief moment, before it vanished in dim burst of light, and re-appeared 500 light-years away. His goal was a small cluster of worlds that had been deemed close enough to the Imperium for inspection. The Hierarch had seen it fit to send him, the first and greatest of the Council, Conqueror of the Star Trek Dimension and the Pegasus Galaxy and more. In two more jumps, they would reach their target, in ten more minutes. By that time, Twenty four Assault Carriers, eighteen CCS-class Battlecruisers, nine Sovereign-class starships and nine Victory-class Star Destroyers would just exit Slipstream Space above the first world in the cluster.

The plan was simple. Should there be heretical forces over the world, occupying it, then it was deemed to be cleansed. In three months since the Imperium and the Divine Covenant had clashed, the Hierarch has quickly consolidated his hold. The Purgatio Vesica had been launched much earlier, but it had spent it's time mostly patrolling the vast border of the Covenant's hold in this Pocket-Galaxy. The entire military of the Covenant was here, now. The Crusade Fleets that had brought the Covenant to its height was assembled into this tiny Galaxy. The Covenant had also expanded as well, three thousand worlds, many outposts, were formed around the Covenant.

The Hierarch had not made his weekly Son Day Speeches anymore, had not come and brought divine healing upon the sick or dying. This had caused concern, but his One Lady, the female known as C2 (or C.C. as some seemed to call her,) had assured the Covenant that he was simply conversing with the Lord. The One Lady, the Lady who had captured the Hierarch's heart after the betrayal of his first two wives, held as much power and respect and awe as the Hierarch himself did.

More ships had been assembled already; hundreds of ships were being built. Sister-ships to the Purgatio Vesica had been built already, the Vox of Deus and the Ira of Angelus. Those ships were to lead a combined Fleet of Cylon Basestar's to two other areas where it had been suggested the Imperium had colonized. Their purpose was the same as his. They would burn and decimate.

"Preparing jump," Saul Tight grunted, pressing the JUMP button. "Execute."

He felt the familiar compressing feeling he felt whenever they executed a Jump, a feeling he had long since gotten used to. In a mere second, they were a mere 500 light-years away from their selected destination.

"Make final preparations to the weapons and defenses," he barked to Tigh, the only other officer beside the four Sangheili Major Domo's manning their stations in the Bridge. "Ensure that the ZPM's are properly placed and they are providing full power. Do not forget to make that the secondary pair's of ZPM's and the back-up ZPM's are ready as well. I wish to be ready when we crush the Imperium."

He had ready the reports on initial first combat. The ships there had not been put to full power, a true disgrace. Only the Archangel had operated on full capacity, but it lacked the ZPM's it should have. The other vessels that were assembled had their weapons on half-power, and didn't have ZPM's either. Now their weapons would be far stronger, far superior to what the Imperium had faced. Hopefully, no, he was certain of this, this would give the Covenant a advantage to what the Imperium was to face.

He laughed nastily.

"To honor and Victory," he roared.

"Honor and Victory," Tigh and the Sangheili roared.

He was eager, impatient. But he calmed himself, and flexed his shoulders. He would prove his faith to God now, by ensuring the victory of the Final Crusade. The Covenant would not be halted, would be decimated, and would not fall! The Imperium, their 'God-Emperor' and their heretical ways would be ended! Soon, the full assault would begin. The thousands of ships, not including the millions of captured warships built by converted worlds, those of the first-defeated Federation and the other denizens in their galaxy, the Tau'ri and Jaffa ships, ships of the Advent and the Galactic Republic/Empire.

Each dimension conquered had to build their own ships, and support the Covenant. Those ships weren't considered part of the main fleet of the Covenant, which had remained unchanged since its formation. In one fell swoop, they would swarm past the worlds and defenses of the Imperium.

Tigh announced: "Final Jump prepared. Executing."

"Do so."

Above a lush world, the Purgatio Vesica appeared just as more than a dozen Slipstream exit windows opened in the fabric of time and space, and the small force of Divine ships sped out and charged.

-----

Smiling, still a bit disturbed from the immense size of his Imperium, the Holy Prior opened his Bible and flipped a few pages. With a reverence and echo in his voice, with the assurance of centuries of faith, he spoke.

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, "Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth."

God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. "It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."

He paused and added: "Genesis 9:8-16."

Gales frowned. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand."

Cavil closed his book. "Understandable for a being who is deluded and does know the path of the Covenant," he said. "The Covenant desires all races who are willing to accept God to accept their embrace. The Covenant has spread far since it was formed several centuries ago, and Salvation is found only through the Hierarch. The Divine Second Son of God save us from a fate in darkness and discord, and unified us as we cleansed evil and purged demons."

He paused and before Gales could say anything he went on. "The Covenant knows no fear, and we have been sent to save your souls from eternal damnation. We know no fear, for the Lord's light paves the way. With his guidance, we are on the path to ascension by the Great Journey. Enlightenment is found only through the guiding hands of the Covenant."

"Really?"

He nodded gravely.

"Indeed. The Final Crusade to prove our faith is at hand. Either your Imperium obeys, or your souls will be lost."


	8. Chapter 8

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Hierach (changed from Fuhrer), the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

**Replies to Reviews/Comments:**

**colin:** I liked the Open Doors a bit, but later on, it seemed rather... disjointed and confusing... The lacking of coherency and organisation in terms of details... is something I do not agree with... But I think GEK at the time of Clash of Empires can take on the new Gods of Chaos in Open Doors with ease...

**FishGod:** No brainwashing... with chemical... But more like a cultural brainwashing... Also, GEK does not really proclaim himself as the God, but his priesthood does... Buddhism is a major religion in the Imperium since the Christianity and other god-worshipping religions had their Gods murdered...

**Fety-Black-Potter:** Thanks! Though I don't think Hierarch would be pleased to know that...

* * *

Special thanks to Hierach, my co-writer, who has began a poll on who wins this epic story... I got a poll on my profile page too!

* * *

**Chapter 8  
**

Gales frowned lightly.

"I'm sorry, but did you just say 'your Imperium'? Does that mean that you are not from Imperium or one of its Protectorates?"

Cavil smiled as he nodded.

"That's right. I have come from far away to show you the light and salva..."

Gales cut him off.

"NO! Oh, no! You cannot stay here! You must be out of your mind to come here!"

"I do not understand, am I not welcome?"

"You are welcomed as long as you are from Imperium or its Protectorates. All outsiders are... Well, you can't stay here. You have to leave!"

Cavil's face hardened.

"I will not leave. I have a mission."

Gales pleaded with the Prior.

"You must leave before they come! They are supposed to come today as well!"

"'They'? Who are 'they'?"

Gales swallowed hard.

"Our world is one of the dozen worlds in this sector that belongs to the local Imperial Marine Chapter as recruiting worlds. Once a year, they come to each planet everyday for a week to select volunteers for their chapter! This is only the fifth day. If the Imperial Marines find you, they will kill you!"

"I do not fear them. I am a Prior of Covenant, the servant of the Second Son!"

Gales chuckled darkly.

"If you do not fear them, then it is your death, outsider. They are the Imperial Marines, the most powerful warriors in all the galaxies and dimensions. They are like gods of war. If you stay, they will find you and kill you."

Cavil looked at Gale for a moment.

"What of you? Will they kill you if they find you with me?"

Gales shook his head.

"No, unless they have proof I have committed a crime that warrants their attention they will not harm me."

Cavil mused.

"Then why are you trying to save me from these 'Imperial Marines'?"

"That's the teachings of the God Emperor. To be tolerant, to be kind and to love thy neighbour, and to serve the Imperium. This is all I can do to help you. Come with me, you can go through the stargate. Our people rarely use it since we have more efficient methods to travel within the Sector so the stargate is used only to more distant planets."

As they quickly made their way to the stargate, Cavil noticed a crowd of people going the other way, with young children no more than five years old. Cavil stopped, much to the dismay of Gales.

"Why are you stopping?"

"What is going on?"

"The ceremony of the Imperial Marines. Their arrival is close. They will come and they will select from the volunteering children."

"Children? You mean to say that those children are chosen and become these 'Imperial Marines'?"

Gales nodded.

"Yes, they are. Once they are chosen they are committed to become an Imperial Marine. It takes nearly a hundred years, but they become Imperial Marines, the most deadly and powerful soldiers of the Imperium."

Cavil turned and began to walk back toward the city. Gales quickly grabbed Cavil.

"Where are you going?"

"To meet these Imperial Marines, and convert them. Covenant Empire is glad to accept strong and brave warriors to its fold."

"You cannot convert them! They are Imperial Marines! Do you not understand?"

"I'm afraid not, Gales. All I know is that the Hierarch demands the conversion of the Imperium and I will not fail my God and his Second Son."

Gales sighed.

"It's you funeral, Prior."

"I do not think so."

-----

The large stargate-looking portal, which was about half the size of real stargates, began to shudder then a portal was formed. It was a thin line of energy containing a direct connection to another planet. While the invisible field had protected any physical movement between the planets, the portal was but a connection. The actual people and objects moved through the same teleportation pads on the ground. With a flash, the particularly large teleport pad suddenly contained thirteen people. The leader of the group was a Librarian of the Imperial Marine Chapter. He was a Master Magus, Level 12 Drasian, and a senior Librarian of the Chapter. Behind him was his Apprentice, a Level 6 Drasian. Next to the Apprentice was a Chaplin of the Chapter. The Imperial Marines were organised similar to the Space Marines, and they had never made that secret, but everyone knew that while the Librarians of the Imperial Marines played similar role as Space Marine Librarian, the Chaplin of the Imperial Marines were totally different to Space Marine Chaplin.

An Imperial Marine Chaplin was the counter-part of the Librarians. The Librarians were Drasians, a human-dragon hybrid artificially created for those candidates who showed strong potential. As the candidates pass the tests and finally shed their old mortal body for a new Drasian body, their power increased tenfold, and their control of Magic and other powers become greater. While it was Librarians who used magic to support the Chapter and provide knowledge and counsel, it was Chaplins who watched over the Chapter and the Librarium for any sign of unsanctioned daemonic or super-powered alien activities. Of course, in most cases, the Chaplins actually worked liked JAG for the Imperial Marines. The Chaplins are given the body that contained powerful Nulling Power, which they can use to render almost any superpower or psychic power useless. Indeed, the Librarians are always at mercy to the Chaplins and their decisions.

Standing 4m tall, the Imperial Marines of the Warmage Chapter stood on the teleportation pad and looked down at the gathered crowd. The Governor of the Planet, in his official garbs, bowed gracefully to the Librarian who nodded in response. Then with a great cheer, the people began to line up their children. With the Librarian, his Apprentice and the Chaplin leading a squad of Imperial Marine Tactical Squad, the Imperial Marines marched through the corridor of people, who had their children standing where the Marines could see them. Here and there, the Imperial Marines would kneel down to take a good look at a child, whispering among themselves. As they moved into a large plaza where a large circle of people awaited them, the Librarian stopped his Apprentice and the Chaplin. Allowing other Marines go ahead to examine the children, the Librarian whispered to the two of them.

"I sense a powerful psyker nearby."

The Apprentice seemed surprised.

"I felt nothing, master."

The Chaplin frowned under his helmet.

"I only thought it was your power."

The Librarian chuckled.

"There is no shame in not noticing, my Apprentice. You are only 6 Drasian, which is still only Level 9 Normal. The one who is out there is at least Level 10 Normal but not quite Level 12."

The Chaplin nodded.

"Yes, I sense the power. It has the taint of a religious fanatic. The stench sickens me."

The Apprentice looked up, trying to find the target with his eyes. His master chuckled.

"You have much to learn, my Apprentice. Another century or two would give you good experiences."

"Yes, master."

"Since I rate 12 Drasian, and just above 18 Normal, I am sure we can deal with this psyker."

The Chaplin let out a low whistle.

"Strange... This power is neither quite psychic nor magic. More like a Superpower."

The Librarian looked at the Chaplin.

"Can you nullify it?"

"Most certainly. I have already figured out the frequency and its variables. Though, I would imagine it would be fun to deal with this 'psyker' without me nullifying his power. He has quite a reserve of it. His output may only be 11 Normal, his power reserves reach nearly 13 Normal."

The Librarian laughed.

"I am an Imperial Marine, and we never back down from a challenge."

-----

"Where are you going?"

"To meet these Imperial Marines, and convert them. Covenant Empire is glad to accept strong and brave warriors to its fold."

"You cannot convert them! They are Imperial Marines! Do you not understand?"

"I'm afraid not, Gales. All I know is that the Hierarch demands the conversion of the Imperium and I will not fail my God and his Second Son."

Gales sighed.

"It's you funeral, Prior."

"I do not think so."

With a flourish, the Prior walked down to where the strange device was, similar to a ancient Stargate. He sneered mentally, and then chastised himself. Stargate's were no longer in service in the Divine Covenant. The Hierarch had proved simple platforms that could travel across the entire diameter of the galaxy. It was a technology that only the Hierarch knew how to operate, and one that he had designed himself, using designs from God.

Stargates….

How crude.

Clearly, he thought, this was yet another sign of their primitiveness that came by because they lacked the faith of God. Today, he would show them what faith in the Lord would give. He felt a slight tug and frowned, and realized that the strange human-like being, though he had a slight reptilian appearance, had scanned him and had, which surprised and horrified him, tested his powers. Clearly, they did not want to learn, but to fight.

Fool's.

Fingering the piece of the Eighth Shadow Mask. The power of the 'Mini-Khans'… a small piece, but one that could summon entire legions of the innocent-appearing-demons… but demons that served the Covenant.

They were weak, but their soft and 'cute' appearance often distracted opponents for precious seconds. He was confident they didn't detect it, the shard. It wasn't powered up, so it didn't emit anything. Not even the Hierarch would be able to detect it, though he would able to kill him even if he did try to kill him. He shuddered-the very idea of betraying the Hierarch was incomprehensible.

It was impossible.

Who would dare stand up to the might of the Hierarch?

"But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ," The Prior whispered as he walked closer, "2 Corinthians 11:3."

"Do not move closer to these warriors," the Prior announced to the group of children approaching the two beings. "It is not the path of salvation for children such as you to be used as warriors." He pointed to the 'Imperial Marines,' "Proud warriors listen and hear."

They didn't budge.

"Heed, my words. Abandon the false faith that you follow, and join upon the path of the Covenant! Approach and listen! I have come, from beyond the paths, to lead your souls upon the path of Salvation! The Covenant, the Divine Empire that spans the dimensions, has come to bring you into it's warm embrace, and tread upon the path to Salvation! Listen, and shed your fears and this heretical liar, this demonic being, the God-Emperor! Abandon him, abandon his lies, and begin the Great Journey!"

-----

The Librarian nodded to his Apprentice.

"I have formed the arena for you, my Apprentice. You may do whatever you wish."

The civilians were quickly moved away from the Prior and Gales also moved away, watching from a distance. The Chaplin chuckled as he moved to the side and leaned on a street lamp. The Apprentice, encouraged by his master, took a couple of steps toward the Prior. Then like lightning, he snatched out his bolt pistol and fired three shots. The Prior responded immediately, forming a shield that deflected the bolts away from him. The stray bolts exploded around them. The Librarian chuckled.

"Use your powers, my Apprentice. You telekinesis is certainly capable of guiding your bolts."

"Yes, master."

Then the Apprentice squeezed the trigger, sending about thirty bolts within three seconds. Like before, the Prior tried to deflect them, but the Apprentice stretched forth with his left hand, clad in power claw, and used his telekinesis to stop the bolts from scattering. Applying firm but gentle pressure, the Apprentice began to push the thirty explosive bolts toward the Prior.

-----

'Trickery and heretical powers!'

The Prior grimaced as the being; the 'Apprentice' used his powers to push the bolts against his shield. The push was gentle, but his shield strained even so against it, and he recited prayers to Lord and his Sons.

"Evil shall do no harm those who are loyal to the Covenant," he roared as he activated his shard of the Oni Mask, and summed the diminutive Mini-Khan, a legion of the tiny demonic beings, all around them.

His eyes flared as he lowered his shield and raised a wall of Earth in front of him, and began to crush the bolts with rock and stone, alarmed as the Apprentice continued to push the bolts towards him, despite his efforts.

"Feast upon their shadows," he hissed.

The bolter shots exploded with great power, easily eating away through the wall of earth. Still about a dozen bolts remained as the Apprentice pushed them. As for the tiny demons, the Apprentice fired his bolt pistol at them, one shot per one demon. In an impressive display of marksmanship, the Apprentice shot away at the demons, each bolt destroying the tiny shadow demon. It did not take long to remove the majority of the demons. Then the Apprentice holstered his pistol and drew his sword from its sheath. For a moment, the eyes of the Apprentice flashed with bright green light, and the sword was encased in green fire, dancing in the air. The Librarian nodded in approval as he spoke to the Chaplin.

"Ah, the poison flame. He is getting good at it."

The Chaplin nodded.

"Yes, it is a good choice against someone using powers. Single lick from that flame will poison the opponent's blood."

"The enemy is not so bad in terms of power, but he is no warrior."

"No... Some sort of preacher, I think."

-----

The Prior narrowed his eyes as the bolts easily tore apart his wall of Earth, and pushed the bolts backwards, a bit. The bolts hovered between the two powerful beings, lesser beings to greater Lords. Without even realizing it, not even draining any of his power, the Prior summoned more and more Mini-Khan, and the tiny beings spread as they searched for shadows to feast upon.

"And when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them you shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them," The Prior shouted as he spread his arms out to his side, shattering the bolts as he watched his opponent's drawn blade glow a fiery green. "Deuteronomy 7:2."

"You cannot win, the Covenant is everlasting!"

"The God-Emperor will emerge victorious, the Imperium is built upon wars against small Empire's such as yours," the Apprentice taunted.

"Insolent fool," the Prior roared as he his opponent brandished his blade.

The Prior saw the two beings standing behind the Apprentice, watching the two combat. The Prior took a deep breath. He was no warrior, no fighter. He was a messenger to the people, to spread the glory and light that the Covenant offered. They lived in peace, in prosperity, under the Hierarch.

Could they not understand?

He directed the Mini-Khan towards the Apprentice, summoning more and more, swarms of them to distract him. However, he knew it would not distract his opponent for long, for this being was a warrior, and a skilled one too. It would not be easy, and he drew searched for a way to evade and return to the Covenant. He could not contact his brothers for some reason, warn them of these beings. He suspected these beings were blocking him.

No matter though.

The Covenant, in the long run, would emerge victorious.

-----

Still pushing the bolts with his telekinesis, the Apprentice began to walk toward the Prior, the tiny shadow demons burning away against the powerful shield and psychic might of a Drasian 6 Level Apprentice. His bulk was immense, and his 4m body was good enough to crush through the rough dirt wall. Resolute in his faith and might, the Apprentice walked, each step imbued with psychic power and determination. Then just as the Prior was in range, the Apprentice swung his blade. The Prior was no fool, however. He instantly leaped backward, using the moment of distraction in the action of the Apprentice to scatter the bolts. The sword cut through the empty air, missing the Prior by about a meter.

Undeterred, the Apprentice charged at the Prior, the power claw on his left hand and sword on his right. The sword swung down, and the Prior evaded it, only to face the power claw moving at his head. Almost instantly, the Prior ducked, the claw racing through his hair and nearly shaving the preacher. The Prior quickly conjured a staff from thin air, and struck the large Imperial Marine. The shield flashed for a single moment. Prior narrowed his eyes before jumping back as the sword cleaved through the air. Cavil gritted his teeth. The enemy was toying with him. He was never meant for such fighting, and he knew, through his years of experience, that the 'Apprentice' was far superior soldier and warrior, and the Prior Cavil had no chance of winning through the skills of weapon.

Avoiding the deadly blade, the powerful Prior slammed his staff on the ground, and vanished in a flash of light, and then re-appeared not too far away. The Prior looked around, confused. Then he realized what had happened, and he felt annoyed, and glared at the Apprentice.

"You limit our combat field?" He said, nervous.

The Apprentice smiled.

"Not me, but my master."

The Librarian waved his hand from outside the field.

"Insolent fools," the Prior roared as he raised his hand, and shot out a blast of lightning from his palm. He slammed his staff on the ground again, and fire burst out of the ground around the Apprentice.

The Apprentice just smiled as the lightning and fire simply licked the personal shields, "Is that all you got?"

The Prior was not yet finished, however.

Ending the burst of lightning and fire, as it clearly had no affect thanks to the shields of the Apprentice, he waved his hand, and began to manipulate gravity itself around the Apprentice. As he did this, he continued to summon more Mini-khans, in the hopes that it would serve as a little distraction for the being. The tiny beings floated up, as they approached the super soldier.

He was discouraged, however, as the Apprentice seemed to be capable of fighting just as well in zero gravity. The Mini-Khan continued to be ineffective, and didn't seem to provide any distraction of any sort. The Prior panicked, and sent a powerful burst of wind, and summoned a whip of fire, wrapping the Apprentice in layer after layer of burning fire. The Apprentice smiled as he just walked through the fire and wind and everything the Prior sent at him. The shield alone held back almost anything, and his powers alone could take anything that the Prior had the imagination to use. The Apprentice smiled widely as the Prior took a step back and touched the wall of psychic power that blocked the escape.

"Well, come on… you can do better than that… right?"


	9. Chapter 9

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Hierach (changed from Fuhrer), the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

**Replies to Reviews/Comments:**

**Morgomir:** Thanks for the support!

**Gogolu:** Thank you!

**danny:** Thanks!

* * *

Special thanks to Hierach, my co-writer, who has began a poll on who wins this epic story... I got a poll on my profile page too!

* * *

**Chapter 9  
**

The Librarian and the Chaplin smiled as they saw their young Imperial Marine of only two millennia grimly approaching the enemy. Suddenly, the Librarian frowned and tapped his head with two fingers. The Chaplin quickly stood up and looked at his colleague. The Librarian gestured at the Chaplin and the Chaplin unhooked his helmet from his belt and put it on. The Librarian quickly turned to his Apprentice, and with a narrowing of his eyes, removed the telekinetic field surrounding the two duelling men. Just as the Apprentice raised his sword, Prior fell backward out of the field. The Apprentice quickly looked up at his master as the Prior quickly stood back up and ran. The Apprentice lowered his sword and raised his left hand. The power claw on the left hand glowed as it amplified the psychic power. Then it stopped. Surprised, the Apprentice looked at this master, who had also raised his power claw and blocked his Apprentice from reaching out and grab the Prior.

"Master?"

"Let him go, my Apprentice. I have my orders to release him."

"My lord?"

"Order from the highest ranks."

"Yes, my lord. I obey."

"Good. We continue our selection, but make it quick. We have to return to our Chapter… and prepare for war."

"Yes, my lord."

-----

"Enemy ships on the edge of our sensors," Tigh barked from his station. The great and legendary Hallowed Admiral waved his hand, sitting in the Gravity Chair. Based on what his Divine Lord and told him, the sensors of the Covenant had a greater range compared to those of the 'Imperium.' If he just detected them, then the Imperium wouldn't have detected them yet.

"As soon as they enter the weapons' range of our warships, open fire," he snarled, "If they have any habitable worlds, burn them."

"Isn't that a bit drastic," Tigh questioned more of a grunt.

The Sangheili glared at the humanoid Cylon, and the man raised his hands, as if to protect himself, "Sorry, sir."

The Sangheili ignored him.

The Purgatio Vesica raced forward as it escorted the small force of Divine warships into battle. Its weapons glowed, warming as its powerful engines pushed the ship ahead of the rest.

"Broadcast to the force," he ordered, "before we enter holy combat, I wish to address my equals."

"A Speech? Cliché, but appropriate…"

Ignoring the comment, the Sangheili got off the chair, his hoofs clanking on the floor, rising to full height. His purple cape hung off his armoured shoulders, and he took a position of menace. "Warriors of the Covenant," he roared, beating his arm on his armoured chest. "Heed my words!"

"The Final Crusade is upon us, the final test we have before we ascend to the Path of Heaven, and begin the path to ascension. The time has come for us to finally prove our faith, and crush the Imperium!"

"FOR THE LORD AND FOR ALL SALVATION!"

In a single unified reply from all ships…

"FOR OUR SPIRITS AND SOUL!"

He closed the connection, and took his seat once more. The small force moved forward, gliding through space. As they neared the enemy fleet, the Hallowed Admiral pulled forth a holographic image of the surrounding area, and scaled the imaged back, so he could get a better look on the enemy ships.

He was amused by the length of the apparent flagship, about 5 and half kilometres long, 3 and half kilometres shorter than his flagship. Its purpose seemed to be similar to that of the Purgatio Vesica, a mobile fortress. The flagship was smaller than his Assault Carriers by a single kilometre. However, based on the heavily militarization of the ships of the Imperium, it would no doubt carry more weapons than his own ship, which would be a sure issue. The enemy's fleet in the system was small, and he was certain that his holy fleet of Covenant's ships can defeat the blasphemous ships of the Imperium.

"Sir, we're in range."

"OPEN FIRE!"

-----

Captain Briar Rankis aboard Pumar Glorius IXX, the commanding officer of a small splinter fleet from the Assault Taskforce 6, was tapping his fingers on the console on his chair. The Pumar was a Glacius-D Class Battlecruiser, a Medium Medium size ship of 5.4km in length, 3.2km in width and 2.2km in height, and like many of the Imperium's ships, it was ancient. The Glacius series, though continuing, has been greatly reduced in number over the millennia. No Glacius-D class has been constructed for nearly four thousand years, and this ship was one of the last few hundreds. Yet, it was in a good shape, capable of pounding down almost any ship of same or lesser size class. The ship was a powerful warship made just for war. The primary armament of nearly 600 Ori/Alesian Beam weapons, 300 APBs, 900 Mk11 PPCs, it could literally pulverise entire fleets by itself without needing to use the secondary weapons. The secondary armament is smaller but far more dangerous. 100 ports of Drone/torpedo Launchers, 80 Directed De-Harmoniser Beams, which is a powerful anti-physical weapon now made obsolete but still powerful, 100 Heavy Missile Launchers, which can fire missiles the size of 21st Century Earth's ICBMs, 80 Anti-Matter Disruptor Cannons, 120 Helix Penetrators and 20 Spatial Seismic Concussion Blasters could easily defeat almost any enemy it faces. The 1200 Anti-fighter weaponry is only a sundry issue not worth mentioning.

However, the weapons of this ship are not the key point about this particular ship. This ship was designed as a mobile fortress of a sort where it can direct and coordinate a complex battle with ease. To that end, the ship contains three separate Bridges plus a secondary Bridge. The Main Primary Bridge is where the Captain commands the ship, while the Main Secondary Bridge coordinates the fleet, and the Main Tertiary Bridge coordinating its considerable number of weapons and the ship's also considerable number of fighter wings. Of course, as a big ship, it commands large hanger bays. The four primary hanger bays contain and maintain five Battlegroups of fighters, each Battlegroup containing ten squadrons. Each of the two secondary hanger bays is where one Battlegroup of bombers is located. The single tertiary hanger bay contains various extra vehicles including SMV (Space Maintenance Vehicle) and troop transports. The ship is able to maintain and even construct replacements for its fighter/bomber compliments through its on-board factories, and given enough resources, it can maintain active battle-status indefinitely.

The impressiveness of this ship could easily overshadow the other ships that this splinter fleet is made up of. The five Fell-Grin Class Assault Cruisers, a small but powerful attack ships with serious heavy weapons, escorted the flagship. Fell-Grin Class Assault Cruisers are known for their deceivingly slim feature. Merely 3.4km in length, 400m in width and 800m in height, the ships look weak, and its lack of significant anti-fighter weapons may contribute to their looks. However, these ships mostly carry heavy weapons, and particularly self-propelled, self-guided kinds. The modest armament of 40 Ori/Alesian Beam weapon, 20 APBs, 120 Mk19 PPCs and 420 anti-fighter weapons is complimented by 180 ports of Drone/torpedo Launchers and 80 Heavy Missile Launchers. To protect the Fell-Grin Class Assault Cruisers from the fighters, the splinter fleet was added with fifteen Calamar Class Anti-Fighter Cruisers. Calamar Class ship was a Heavy Light ship with the length of mere 1.6km, but it was armed with 180 Mk.5 Imperial Type Turbolaser turrets, 80 Mk.6 Anti-Fighter Missile Launchers and 80 Mk.4 Anti-Fighter Flak Beam turrets as well as 20 pin-point tractor beams that can catch almost any fighter within 1000km range.

-----

"Captain, sir!"

Briar continued to tap his fingers as his XO Commander Varil Somnis reported.

"What is it, Number One?"

"Sir, we are detecting multiple hyperjump signatures. Unknown fleet is arriving."

Briar looked up quickly.

"It must be the Covenant Empire. Prepare for battle."

"Yes, sir. Red Alert! All ships, Red Alert!"

Briar nodded at the efficiency of his First Officer. He tapped several buttons on his own console and spoke to the crew and the other ships.

"This is Captain Briar Rankis. We have incoming. Prepare for war and glory to the Imperium and the God Emperor!"

Then, he coolly stood up, not betraying any emotion, and looked out the front window. Without even turning his head, he questioned his men.

"What's their ETA?"

"Three minute twenty seconds, sir."

"Location?"

"Unable to confirm, but I can give you the general area."

The screen showed a large area near the 5th planet where the enemy ships would probably arrive to.

"Where are rest of my fleet?"

XO answered that by showing a map of the star system. They were currently between 4th and 5th planet, which were quite close together, and eight ships, including two Fell-Grin class ships were orbiting the 6th planet. Rankis narrowed his eyes.

"We cannot confirm the strength of the enemy?"

The Ops officer furiously tapped his console and then reported.

"Sir, our sensors indicate at least fifty ships and probably more."

"Understood. Prepare to fire all weapons into that area of space the moment they jump out."

"Yes, sir."

The XO came next to the captain.

"Sir, what of the eight ships out there?"

"Have them strike from behind. Launch all fighters and bombers. We are going to fire everything we got at the very moment they arrive."

The XO nodded and the Communications Officer quickly sent the transmission. Smiling very faintly, the captain turned his head to the Ops Officer.

"ETA?"

"One minute forty seconds, sir."

"Very good. We shall have the drop on them when…"

Suddenly, alarm blared and the Ops Officer spoke with surprise in his voice.

"Captain! The enemy is here! They have arrived!"

"What? You said that we had another minute!"

"Sorry, sir! The enemy's arrival location is also wrong, sir. It appears that they have some sort of passive jamming signal that lightly disrupted our long range sensors."

The Weapons Officer shouted his report.

"Sir, enemy ships are firing! Brace for impact!"

The ship shuddered as if they were standing on a vibrating bed. It was neither serious nor damaging. The powerful first layer of shield easily held off the attacks of the Covenant ship, though the sheer number of incoming fire was worrying for the lesser ships. Rankis growled as he called his fleet.

"This is Rankis… all ships, fire at will!"

The moment he said it, the hundreds of weapons aboard the ships of the Imperium came to life, spewing death at the enemy. The flagship alone fired 1800 bursts of Ori/Alesian Beam weapon in the first shooting, while the 300 Asgard Plasma Beams and over 22,000 bolts of super-dense plasma from the PPCs launched toward the ships of the Covenant. The 100 ports of Drone/torpedo Launchers fired entire swarm of Drones, firing nearly 10,000 drones that burned with deadly energy. The Heavy Missile Launchers fired their heavy payloads, with each 20m long missiles carrying its own shield generator and the powerful Hellfire Warhead. The Anti-Matter Disruptor Cannons, Helix Penetrator Cannons and Spatial Seismic Concussion Blasters also unleashed their deadly payloads upon the Covenant ships. The three Fell-Grin class ships that were with the flagship let loose hundreds upon hundreds of torpedoes and thousands upon thousands of drones, while the Calamar class ships fired their numerous anti-fighter weapons more as a distraction than anything else.

-----

The alarms in the bridge blared as streams of plasma and energy and drones raced towards his force. "Raise shield to full power," he roared, broadcasting on all frequencies. "Counter their Drones and Missiles!"

"Launching Drones!"

From the many launch tubes of the various Covenant ships, millions of miniature drones shot out as well as thousands of Super-Drones. The Victory-class Star Destroyers fired off streams of dense plasma bursts, blasting apart flocks of drones. Explosions rippled between the two forces as drones tore apart drones. Xytan 'Jar Wattinree bared his mandibles and held his place as a number of drones smashed on a layer of shielding.

"Launch fighters," he hissed, "we will draw off some of their fire."

"They have Anti-Fighter batteries firing though!" Sigh protested.

"They are expendable," The Hallowed Admiral barked, his eyes glowing with a zealous look, "we will have many more pilots and many more AI's. Focus all fire power on the shields of their flagship." He paused and continued on. "Codeword: Sinful Pride. Unleash our Phase Missiles; let us see the damage the modifications can do…"

Saul Tigh nodded, a bit nervous, and relayed the orders. From the vast hanger bay of the Assault Carrier's and Battlecruisers, Destroyers, and Star Destroyers and Starships, hundreds of fighters and bombers and Interceptors were thrown into the fray. The shielded fighters clashed their counter-parts, and scores on both sides were immediately destroyed within a minute's time.

A Victory-class ship was torn to shreds by the sheer firepower the infidel ships were throwing at them, and a Sovereign spun in a circle, tearing itself apart as it crashed into a Imperium vessel, it's shields flaring as it strained.

"We've recovered their ZPM's, sir."

"Put them with our main weapons," the Reptilian Alien barked as the ship lead the charge, the 9 kilometer long Mobile Fortress destroying one of the Imperium's vessels. "We will need all the fire power we can have to destroy their flagship. Hopefully, without their flagship this battle will be easier…"

"Yes sir."

"Target their engines," the Sangheili continued on, looking at the hologram of the ensuing battle, "disable the ship and destroy its bridge. See if our AI's can breach their networks once more, find any partially vulnerable areas."

"You won't destroy it," Saul said, shocked and confused.

The Sangheili chuckled.

"It will be valuable to the Covenant, the first ship to join us. We can reverse-engineer any useful technology that the Hierarch deems useful. With the newer upgrades to the fleets, in a few months, possibly two years maximum, our Basestar's and Assault Carriers will be able to bear a hundred times as many weapons as they do now."

"Yes, sir."

The Hallowed Admiral let out a fearsome roar as his force engaged the Imperium Splinter Fleet, weaving through the gaps and holes of the expansive battle field. Shields held and failed, and bolts smashed on layer after of both sides.

Sovereign's commenced Slipstream Jump Attacks, crisscrossing the entire combat area in seconds, hitting ships and taking hits. Ships on both sides were destroyed, and ZPM's were recovered to power weapons further. The Purgatio Vesica bombarded the flagship of the Imperium Fleet with an unholy barrage of weapons. Beams killed off fighters on both sides, and bombs erupted in the middle of space. Weapons on both sides impacted on each other's shields, friendly fire reports growing with each second.

'Victory is to be assured.'

-----

"Captain, we have lost another two Calmar class ships, but the shields of our Fell Grin class warships are holding."

The captain nodded grimly.

"Report, now," he barked.

His XO nodded. "Our primary shield is holding at 40%, which is… until their next drone barrage."

"Any damages?"

The XO smiled as the ship shook lightly once more.

"Minimal damages, sir. Their weapons are strong enough, but not numerous enough against our ship."

"Good... Contact the ships, focus fire on their capital ships. Prepare a Drone Swarm."

"Yes, sir!"

The three Fell Grin class ships and the flagship suddenly stopped firing their drones. The drones that had already been fired smashed into the shields of the powerful Covenant warships. Their shields flared, layer's holding as some broke through, only to smash on another. The Covenant ships fought hard and they began to focus their weapons on of the Fell Grin class ships. Another Hellfire Missile launched from the Fell Grin only to be struck by a dozen Drones. The large missile's shield held against five Drones before succumbing to them. The magic core instantly activated, detonating the warhead. Unfortunately for the Fell Grin that fired it, the missile was still too close when it detonated, instantly crippling the shields as the incredibly hot fire seared through space.

The flagship roared forward, blasting away at the smaller Imperial warships as it turned its focus to the central flagship's support ships. The smaller Imperium vessels burned under the cleansing fire of the Covenant warships. Despite this, the smaller Covenant ships, their Sovereign-class starships and Victory-class Star Destroyers crumpled under the endless bombardment, withering away as their shields were stripped away one by one, and their armor was burned and boiled and crushed. As each ship was torn apart by the endless rain of fire, ZPM's were beamed away along with as many crew members as possible to other ships, leaving near-empty husks to die. The Imperials sneered as their sensors detected the Covenant ships beaming away ZPMs. To Imperium, ZPM was something quite common throughout its domain and there was no need to scavenge the destroyed ships.

Suddenly, Hyperspace windows tore open in the middle of space behind the engaging Covenant warships, and out spilled two Fell Grin and six Calamar-class ships. Onboard a Fell Grin, the Captain grinned savagely and he roared as he watched the opposite vessels begin to turn to face him. If he died, then he died for the glory of the Imperium.

"Fire Hellfire Warheads."

"Yes, Captain, sir!"

From the sides of the multi-kilometre warships, the large slow missiles burst out of their launchers, streaming towards the targets. Far more powerful than any weapon already flying around in this battle, the missiles erupted in a glorious and terrible ball of fiery devastation. The last remaining Sovereign-class had the fatal mistake of being too close to resulting explosion.

~What the…in the name of Hierar- ~

The final transmission.

Cut down to a mere half of their numbers, the Covenant Fleet split its attention to the two forces. Shields flared as the floating and rotating pieces of shattered hulls and broken ships battered both sides alike. Yet as they did so, beams of plasma and missiles and drones tearing through shields and hull emanating from the Covenant Fleet, the flagship and 3 Fell Grins within the flagship fired their pooled drones. Just like O'Neill destroying Anubis' fleet, a great pillar of light came forth from the ships and joined, then swarmed toward the Covenant fleet.

-----

As the great pillar of swarming drones moved against the surviving warships of the Covenant, the Hallowed Admiral chuckled.

"Do they believe the Covenant is fools," he snarled.

"The Emitter is powered," Tigh said, coughing.

The Sangheili nodded.

"Activate it now," he roared.

An unseen and unheard shockwave erupted from the Main Battle Platform, spreading across millions of miles. The Hallowed Admiral didn't even imagine that his anti-Drone energy pulse could fail as his sensors indicated the wave of the pulse collided into the swarm of Drones. Then he blinked. What was happening? Why were the Drones not stopping? About 15% of the Drones became inert but the rest of them were still coming. He quickly turned to Tigh.

"What is this? Again! Fire it again!"

"There must have been some mistake. Firing again, admiral."

Another pulse shot out from the ship and waved through the Drones, dropping another 15%, but the rest were still coming. The Sangheili could not believe his eyes. As Tigh desperately fired the pulse again, only stopping another 15%, the Hallowed Admiral growled in rage and impotence.

"Fire Sun Bursts," the Sangheili ordered, violent anger seething just beneath his skin.

"Yes, Hallowed Admiral," Tigh said, gritting his teeth.

From the flanks of the ship, two tubes extended themselves a few meters from the hull of the powerful flagship. The tubes glowed brightly, and small bursts erupted out, and sped at light-speed at the Imperium flagship. The Covenant had, for centuries, been able to create miniature suns to suit their purposes. The Original High Charity, after all, had been powered by artificial suns. As the Covenant expanded, this creation had only grown more and more elegant and deadly. Several centuries of research and study and experiments had culminated in the Sun Bursts. With the fury of twenty suns on the verge of Super-Nova, compressed into the space of a sphere no bigger than a single meter, the deadly weapons shot across the space toward the Imperial's flagship.


	10. Chapter 10

Welcome!

This is a relay story between me and Hierach (changed from Fuhrer), the writer of Covenant Empire.

This is the story of the future of our empires, who gets to clash.

These futures are 'possible' futures for each of our empires, and our original stories may take different paths. However, this will allow glimps of the future of our empires.

* * *

**Replies to Reviews/Comments:**

Umm... thanks for reading!

* * *

Special thanks to Hierach, my co-writer, who has began a poll on who wins this epic story... I got a poll on my profile page too!

Stargate: Covenant Empire... by Hierarch

Another story to recommend:

Golden Dawn... by Amann

War of Gods and Men... by Amann

And read my new stories!

Stargate SG-1: Galactic Imperium

Void Keeper: Hellraiser... by me!

**This is one of the last reserve chapters Hierarch and I wrote. Our writing is on hiatus as he also wanted my main story, the SG-1: Galactic Imperium to go on faster!**

* * *

**By the way, I have added a few more previews to chapter 69, including Harry Potter, Buffy and WH40K. Also, there are previews on Smallville and Terminator Salvation!**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

The world Varius was a recently colonized world, and bore a small population of two million, scattered across small cities and towns. Yet the colony was already rapidly growing, more people and supplies arriving with each passing day. The world was at the near edge of the FTL Inhibitor field, it was constantly protected by four legions of terrifying and merciless Sangheili warriors and a legion of lethal and emotionless Cylon Centurions.

However, ever since the Final Crusade, the last crusade to end all crusades, had been declared, the defensive forces had increased. Now eight legions of Sangheili and five Cylon Centurion Legions patrolled the world, accompanied by two cohorts of the bird-like Kig-Yar and a hundred Wraith Tanks and the nimble and rapid-traveling 'Ghosts,' as well as twelve Banshee's.

It was a powerful force, but at the same time it wasn't.

Indeed, for the garrison was only to delay an enemy, to allow greater forces to arrive to crush those who dare oppose them. The great and immortal teachings of Hierarch rang down to all of them and to all, spreading the love of God to the fresh new born, and the embrace of the Lord to the near-death.

Tara Golova had the honour of looking over the steadily growing colony, and was pleased with her. The world had a day cycle of 29 hours, and was just around the size of a normal sized world. It was extremely fertile, and it's main produce were agricultural surplus from vast fields of grass.

"Yes, this bounty shall be bountiful," she said to herself as she looked down upon the Capital City, Varium, from her office in the Central Spire of the City. "We will be able to send enough food to support three other colonies, and bring forth more rations for our brave soldiers…"

She was happy for another reason as well. Her husband, part of the Planetary Militia, was coming home for a month of leave. She was finally going to get some alone time with him, even though it was for a short period of time. She could imagine him in his power armour walking up the stairs to their home… and sighed.

'Sigh…'

Yet faith…

The Universe…

Had other plans.

Had one looked to the sky, had one been able to expect that the Imperium knew other ways to send crafts at high speeds without the use of FTL, they would have seen a strange sight in high orbit.

Speeding down, a strange and large asteroid-looking object roared from deep space, fire enshrouding it. The garrison commander saw a ball of fire burst from the atmosphere and crash down miles away. "A meteor here? What in the name of the Hierarch…" the Sangheili Field Marshal muttered.

He pointed to a pair of Sangheili Domo Minor's in their blue armor. "The two of you, man your Ghosts and inspect the debris from orbit. Probably a meteor, but see what it is, and report back," he barked.

The Sangheili saluted. "Yes, Field Marshal."

Mounting the nimble and rapid scout-attack vehicle, the anti-gravity generators hummed to life and the purple-hued craft sped forward.

Yes…

Faith had other plans…

-----

From deep within the Imperium space in the Pocket Galaxy, a giant space station was near completion. It was beautifully made, the art of its architecture aesthetically pleasing. The tall silvery towers and curved walls made it look like something from fantasy genre, yet the small glimpses of numerous weapons that filled every crack between the pillars proved that the looks is not everything. Indeed, it was one of the Forward HQ of the Imperial Military, and the main HQ of the early stages of the conquest of the Pocket Galaxy since the Primary HQ was only 30% complete. The station was easily 150km in height, and its radius nearly 30km. With 150 pre-built weapon platform turrets defending, the station was already a hub of local star systems. The sheer resources needed by station of such size, as well as the armies that have begun to arrive as its garrison, meant that it was the focus of the local economy.

The Forward HQ was in the high orbit of planet Heddens IV, a fertile planet already colonised and populated by nearly ten million people. Most of the population was Government Employees and they worked in the main city, where the vast factories were being built to supply the HQ and its armies with equipments and weapons. The planet was colonised with meticulous plan, and only 10% of its available land would be used as cities, while the rest would become farmland. Already, nearly 10% of the total available land has been developed, with the cityscape taking 5% of that 10%. There was only one city, and rest of the claimed land was farmland. Yet, even with such vast farmland, it would not be able to sustain the future population since another 10% of the total land was pre-designated as military compounds including high-density barracks. This would bring great economy benefits to this planet and the nearby stars, but it also meant that a lot of resources would soon be required.

While the colonisation and development of the planet was continuing, the nearby fourteen star system and the colonies in those systems were busy trading their resources through the Forward HQ. The Forward HQ actually had dedicated civilian sectors on it that allowed the Forward HQ to supply some of its own maintenance cost through docking fees and other things. However, the Forward HQ was still a military station with grim purpose. It was designed, like all other Forward HQ stations, to be able to operate a war. In fact, once its completion reached 90% and only the extra and superficial elements needed adding, the station went online for war. Within days of requisition, three troop transports carrying fifty thousand each, four large military cargo ships and a single Imperial Marine Assault Cruiser arrived.

One of the first things unloaded were five Wargates, a model of Stargate-like device that was solely used for the warfare of Imperium. It was 5m in radius and looked very much like a Stargate minus the marking and turning wheels. It was solid thing, heavily armoured against destruction, though its self-destruct device was embedded inside the armour. The Wargates were transported outside the station, and fifteen Constructor Sentinels were unloaded. This variant of Matrix Sentinels moved out from the hanger bay and spread across the Wargates. Three Sentinels wrapped their legs around each gate and placed their heads inside the ring. A small round computer was teleported in the middle of the ring, floating freely. Then several vehicles approached the gates.

The vehicles took their positions around the Wargate and began to fire strange white foam. The foam covered and filled every part of the gate and the Sentinels. Within ten minutes, the five Wargates looked like five white balls of marshmallow. Then the vehicles surrounding the Wargates began to shoot some sort of beams on the white ball of foam. The beams began to be covered by rock-like surface. It took another fifteen minutes, but the entire surface of the foam became a meter thick crystalline stone. Once that was done, the station grabbed the large fake-meteors with the tractor beam. Five hyperspace windows formed and the tractor beams through the meteors into the hyperspace.

-----

The two Ghosts moved across the grassy plains. They had to go over two hills and a rocky patch at the roots of a mountain, and then they would arrive at the estimated location of the crashed meteor. It was rather far, and without the Ghosts, it would have taken nearly a whole day, but the speedy hover vehicles made it easier. It took only three hours, but they finally arrive on the other side of the mountain on a wide but flat low hill. A large crater was on the side of the low hill. The two Ghosts stopped on the slightly higher hill to the north east. The two Sangheili got out and peered at the crater. At first they thought it was just a meteor, and then they saw something. Something was moving inside the crater.

"What?"

"I don't know either… Let's check it out."

They nodded and turned around to get back on the Ghosts. Suddenly, something large flew over their heads, covering the Sangheili with its large shadow. In instinct, the Sangheili drew their side arms, which was faster to draw. As they moved their hands toward their primary weapon, something whooped down behind them. The Sangheili soldier turned, and they saw a large Matrix Sentinel. They knew what it was, as the Covenant had already dealt with the machines of the Matrix Dimension Earth. However, they instinctively knew that this Sentinel was different. It was obviously bigger and its head was not so clumsily designed as the original Sentinel. Its seven large red eyes stared into the two Sangheili for a second. The warriors of Covenant instantly fired their weapons at the head, the powerful side arms shooting plasma at the machine. Much to their surprise, a layer of skin-tight shield flared and absorbed the attacks. Seeing their side arms useless the Sangheili grabbed their primary weapon when the Sentinel struck.

Its powerful tentacles shot forth and grabbed on Sangheili, while the other soldier barely evaded the deadly tentacle. This Sentinel had twelve thick tentacles, the outer eight had powerful claw, with the inner four armed with other equipments. Two of the inner tentacles were armed with powerful plasma fusion cutter/welder, while one was equipped with antenna and the last one with powerful tractor beam projector. The Sentinel stood on three tentacles and used three to grab the first Sangheili while sending two for the other. The first Sangheili was caught by one of the three tentacles and other tentacles quickly caught up. The tentacles grabbed a leg, the gun wielding arm and the head. As the Sangheili screamed, the Sentinel efficiently and emotionlessly tore the limbs off the body, and crushed the head with the powerful crunch. Meanwhile, the other Sangheili got on his Ghost and turned its weapons on the Sentinel. Just as he fired the weapons, the Sentinel jumped and flew away toward the crater, making the plasma weapon miss. After an awkward silence, the Sangheili soldier made his decision and headed back to report on his findings.

-----

The Sangheili Field Marshal frowned as he inspected the holographic image of the world he had the honour of overseeing. He watched as objects appeared in orbit where no objects were supposed to be… and that disturbed him. Was it possible, that despite his hawk-like watch, the Imperium had managed to arrive in orbit? "Impossible," he said darkly.

He growled in anger. How dare the Imperium insult a distinguished Field Marshal himself, who had studied under the immortal Hallowed Admiral, the most powerful and well-respected Sangheili in all of the Divine Empire of the Covenant. He had been, not once, but thrice been in the presence of the Hierarch, and had been blessed by his great Lord as well! He knew it could have been ships, despite the fact that this world was close to the edge of the Anti-FTL field. They would have been able to detect them-these structures had just suddenly appeared out of no where. "The Imperium must have arrived through other means," he reasoned. He thought back to the impact of the falling object…. "Where are those Sangheili," he muttered, staring to the East where the Ghost's had gone.

He was worried. But he was also Sangheili-and to worry was to show fear, to show weakness. To have such emotions, especially during a Crusade, was for the weak, and those near death against impossible odds. Even then, a Sangheili would fight to the bitter end, and take as many of their foes with them to the fallen hells of Evil, and rise to glorious heaven!

Perhaps, he thought, they had paused at the Outer Military Base. It was a bit off the path where the Ghost's had taken, but reasonably close. He raised the Military Base on his comm. "Hail, and heed, for this is your Field Marshal. Respond in earnest," he finished.

Nothing…

The Field Marshal growled. "Hail and Heed…"

Little did he know it was too late.

The Sangheili stumbled into the small military base, dragging his shattered left leg as he took deep breaths. His armor was splattered with the purple blood of his little brother, a fierce and idealistic warrior, and his own. How could a Sentinel be so powerful-they had been easy to tame and adapt for use in the Covenant. He shook his head and entered the compound. Two Sangheili Special Operatives noticed him and at once arrived at his side. "Comrade Brother," one uttered, taking in the battered appearance of the Sangheili, "what happened to you?"

"The Imperium…" he wheezed, disgraced by the relative easiness that that ancient and barbaric machine had killed his brother and injured him. He was still astonished by the power it held. "The Imperium…. They have… landed upon Holy Soil," he managed to utter.

"What," a Cylon Model Four, 'Simon,' said coldly, walking up to the injured Cylon. "How could they?"

"A… Matrix-type Sentinel…"

The Cylon shook his head. "Impossible. You must be--"

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

-----

The Sentinels had erected the Wargate upright with their powerful tentacles, and began to install it. When the third Sentinel returned, they positioned themselves behind the Wargate and began to power it up. Then with a sudden flash, the wormhole opened. Within the moment of the wormhole's appearance, twenty dark grey armoured soldiers poured out, each carrying powerful-looking weapons. They were the Imperial Clone Stormtroopers, the vanguard of the Clone Army who can break the will of the enemies before the main Clone Army arrive. Another twenty came through and another until there was one hundred Clone Stormtroopers surrounding the Wargate, their watchful eyes seeking any danger. They all carried a primary weapon, a secondary weapon on their back, a side arm and a sword. The leader of this group was a heavily armoured lieutenant, who had two side arms hanging on each side of his belt. The lieutenant looked around and then headed to one of the Sentinels. He opened a small keypad and screen on the underside of his left wrist and tapped some buttons. Narrowing his eyes under his helmet, the lieutenant spoke into his comm.

~Boys, we have been detected by the enemy. Set up the parameter and prepare for battle.~

The Clone Stormtroopers nodded silently and followed their sergeants and spread out across the ground. The lieutenant then tapped some more buttons on his keypad. After a moment, more troops came through, but they were but normal Imperial Clones in their white armour and standard armament. However, after nine hundred Clone Troopers later, came the real deal.

The forms of massive hulking Imperial Marines stepped through the Wargate one by one, each of them carrying fearsome array of weapons and solemn air of death and doom. Their massive 4m tall hulks slowly moved through the wormhole, their heavy and powerful boots shaking the ground they tread. Fearsome in their mighty armour, they looked around, absorbing the vast array of information flowing through their helmet and other sensors on their armour. The leader of this squad of Imperial Marines was a Sergeant, who, unlike the rest of his Marines, did not carry an Imperial Marine Boltgun, but had a single Boltpistol strapped to his thigh. The Sergeant would raise his left hand and flex his Power Claw, gleaming dangerously under the sun as the pulses of white energy coursed through the vein-like conduits. The Sergeant turned around to look at his Tactical Squad. Each of the Imperial Marines was carrying a Bolter and a Power Sword on their belt, which was different from the Sergeant who carried two swords on his back instead. The Imperial Marines' armours were immaculately decorated. Each edges and grooves in the armour lined with gold, silver and platinum, and sculpted with various shapes and designs. Their left shoulder pauldron showed the symbol of their Chapter but their right shoulder pauldron showed the marking of their Legion, and since their Chapter was an independent Chapter, their pauldron only showed generalised Imperial Marine symbol. Their chest piece showed the mark of the God Emperor of Galactic Imperium, while their helmets had a small mark of God Emperor on their forehead. The greaves were meticulously designed, etched with gold and silver, shining and sculpted with various achievement of the individual Marine. Most of the Marines had their greaves fully filled with hundreds of tiny rectangular gold and silver plaques that covered their greaves and only few had platinum plaques with tiny gems on them. The Sergeant had at least ten of such platinum plaques.

The lieutenant of the Imperial Stormtroopers quickly came up to the Imperial Marine Sergeant and saluted. The Sergeant nodded and spoke to the smaller man through the external speaker, slightly distorting his voice.

~I am Brother Sergeant Allon Velnisk, Tactical Squad Velnisk, 8th Battle Company of Knights of Hunt Imperial Marine Chapter. By the command of the Imperial Military, I hereby take command of this operation until such time I am relieved by superior officer. Please note the time and date.~

The lieutenant nodded.

"Yes, sir! The official confirmation has been recorded. We are at your command."

~Very good, lieutenant. Continue with the standard deployment procedure. Do we have any telemetry as of yet?~

"Not yet, sir. We will launch the satellite as soon as it is ready, sir."

~Understood. I am going to send some of my men to scout ahead for any enemies.~

"Then I suggest that way, sir. The Constructor Sentinels detected two hostile life forms in that direction."

~Very well, lieutenant. I will send five of my men in that general direction, in a spread Search & Destroy pattern. Spare two squads of Clone Troopers for each of those five.~

"Yes, sir!"

The Sergeant turned around and spoke to his squad through internal communication.

~Brothers, I need five volunteers for Search & Destroy pattern scouting.~

The squad instantly made their decision to send out younger Marines, though the youngest was only six hundred years younger than the next, as they did not have same amount of experience. The five chosen Imperial Marines began to walk toward the general direction where the two Sangheili were ambushed by a Constructor Sentinel.

Meanwhile, the Wargate was still open, and three cylindrical pods came through, coming around and landing behind the Wargate. Then twenty 3m tall vehicles manned by a Clone Engineer, came through. These were the Imperial SCVs. The idea of such useful innovation had caught the eyes of the Imperium and was redeveloped for the Imperial use. The result was the Imperial SCVs. They were tough, rough and dependable. Protected by its thick armoured plated hull, a skin-tight shield and armed with a top-mounted plasma repeater and the two Sentinel-based utility claws, the Imperial SCV was not so easy to target. Following the Imperial SCVs, came out three vehicles that barely fit through the Wargate. These were the Mobile Construction Modules, which was derived from the Command & Conquer series plus the use of Goa'uld metal-folding technology and Asgard materialisation technology. The modules got into their positions around the Wargate. One got right behind the Wargate, and other two flanked the gate. Then they unfolded. With flashes of Asgard beaming and unfolding metal, it took nearly an hour, but by the time it was done, the Wargate was surrounded by three interconnected buildings.

The Imperial SCVs quickly got to work, adding finishing touches to the buildings. While the buildings were built, numerous supplies modules and other materials began to arrive, and the SCVs busied themselves with the constructions. It did not take long before a rudimentary military compound was constructed all around them. They built a basic wall around the compound and set up watchtowers. Crude pavement was being laid down and rough barracks were raised. Also, three portable satellite modules were received and they were quickly launched into the orbit, the satellites cloaking as they went up. Once the satellites were up, they began to transmit the layout of the continent, and while unable to detect anything specific, they detected the cities, military outposts and various artificial constructs around the continent. The satellites also noted a good place to build a real military base nearby. Once the compound was done and it was ready to defend itself, they would move to the location. Once the supplies stacked up, and new construction modules and another 100 SCVs arrived, more Clone Troopers came through. Walking in a neat 4 by 25 groups, 2000 Clone Troopers arrived through the gate. When the time had come to move to the location for a real base, which the SCVs were already sent two hours before to lay down the foundation, the Wargate was turned off and lifted up by the Sentinels who moved it to the new location. Most of the army move off too, leaving only a thousand Clone Troopers and some supplies.


End file.
